The Ultimate Weapon
by Paradoxal Reality
Summary: Gaz's abilities used to destroy mankind? Finally complete!
1. A Storm Breaks

Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all. Nothing, you hear me? No-Thing!  
  
Note: Ever notice Gaz's weird abilities? Like in "Game Slave 2", for example? I'm going to try and explain them. Will it reek hideously or merely suck? You decide!  
  
Chapter One  
  
Dib Membrane dragged himself through the doorway to his home, beaten, frazzled, and thoroughly defeated once again. How was it that Zim, surely the most laughable excuse for alien superiority that had ever been spawned, always managed to defeat him? He paused, exhausted. As he lay there, sprawled half in and half out of the entrance, he dimly heard an irritated grunt of annoyance from behind. 'Uh oh' was his only thought before his little sister stomped heavily over him into their home. He gingerly reached to feel his aching back for any obviously snapped vertebrae or protruding bones.  
  
Finding neither, he pushed himself up on his hands and knees to finish crawling into the house. As he sorted out how to move forward without entangling himself in the tail of his trenchcoat and falling onto his already bruised face, he felt a drop of water land on an exposed spot on his left leg. He paused. Rain? He staggered back into a sitting position on the stoop and stared up at the angry clouds boiling across the sky. How strange. He knew very well that it had been a mercilessly hot sunny day only moments ago when he had been creeping along over the blistering pavement on his way home.  
  
Dib sat there, staring up into the first scattering fall of rain. It was strange. Very, very strange.  
  
"So son, daughter, how was your day?" their father's image on the hovering vid-monitor asked casually. Dib didn't look up from where he picked listlessly at a plate of microwave-warmed macaroni and cheese. Both he and Gaz were used to the mealtimes that most other families would consider odd. Actually having a real-time conversation with him was a rare privilege, but he was too tired to take advantage of it.  
  
"Made it to the secret perfect score bonus level on 'Piggies of Blood IV' today." Gaz piped up suddenly. Dib snorted. "Oh, is that what you were doing when you walked all over me today? Glad to know it was something important." That had come out a little sharper than he'd intended. He looked up to gauge the reactions of his father and sister. Gaz slowly opened one eye to glare at him. "Well, we can't all be out saving the world from mutant vampire paperclips, Dib."  
  
Dib jumped, not only because of her icy tone, but because of the booming roar of thunder that accompanied it. Gaz's glare didn't waver at the deafening crack, indeed it was almost as if she'd been expecting both the thunder and the fresh downpour of heavy rain that accompanied it. She stood, purposely leaving her dirty plate on the table for him to clean up, and exited the room.  
  
Dib stared after her for a moment, feeling the tension that followed his sister like a barely-tamed pet demon. From behind him, he could hear his father's voice issue softly from the hovering monitor. "Ah dear… It's started already. I thought we'd have a few more years at least." Dib looked back at his father's image. "What!?" for all its shock, the question had been barely a whisper. Still, Professor Membrane had heard it. "I'll be home in a few hours, son. We'll discuss it then." The image went black as the connection was terminated.  
  
Dib stared at the disconnected screen in shock. "What's started? What are you talking about, Dad?" Whatever it was, it had to be big. Normally nothing could coax their father away from the "all important" work of saving all mankind. He shuddered involuntarily as another peal of thunder shook the house with ultra low-frequncy sound waves. 


	2. The Fact of the Matter

Chapter Two  
  
Professor Membrane was good to his word. Barely two hours and fifteen minutes later, he walked casually through the front door as if he did it every day. Which, as his waiting son could readily testified, was far from the truth. Their father probably didn't spend enough hours in their home during the course of a year to constitute a full month's time.  
  
Indeed, as the famous scientist looked around the room, his expression unreadable from behind the upturned collar of his flawless clean white coat, Dib couldn't help but wonder what his father thought when he did arrive home. What an unfamiliar place it must be, like a return visit to a recurring dream that one doesn't recall in the daylight hours. An alien landscape that mocks you with its familiarity.  
  
Finally his father's attention wandered to Dib, who waited alone on the sofa. "Dad?" he asked hesitantly. "So what… what did you want to talk about?" The strange circumstances of the evening were making him jumpy. Instead of answering, his father walked past him, into the kitchen. "Where's your sister?" he asked softly. Dib shrugged. "Upstairs rotting her brain on video games, what else? Everyone thinks I'm nuts, but at least I'm not locked in a world of electronic death and backlit colors." Dib crossed his arms in a slight sulk at the unfairness of it all.  
  
"I see."  
  
Dib followed his father back into the living room. "Dad?" No response. "Dad!? Aren't you going to tell me what this is all about!?" Professor Membrane sat down heavily on one end of the sofa. "Dib, what do you recall about when Gaz was small?" Dib felt his head cock to one side like that of a curious puppy. "Dad, I was barely a year old when Gaz was born. As far as my memory's concerned, she's always been here." He shrugged at the futility of the question. Just like his father to forget something like that, he figured.  
  
"I suppose that you were too small to recall it, at that. It was a hectic, complex time for all of us. Your mother died, you were born, Gaz was probably little more than a footnote in your young mind." Dib pulled himself up beside his father on the reassuring sofa. "You mean that I was born, then Gaz, then Mom died, don't you, Dad?" he pressured. Professor Membrane shook his head. "No, Dib. I don't. Your mother, dear thing that she was, died when you were just six months old. You know that it was an accident at the lab, but I'd rather not go into what happened. Even now it's too fresh in my mind to think of without pain. Perhaps, in a few more years." The older man trailed off, his eyes focused on something far away from their protected shelter behind his goggles.  
  
Before his son could quite get a grip on what he was being told, he continued. "You know, I've made a lot in my lifetime. Inventions, ground- breaking discoveries… but no matter how much time I spend in that laboratory, I want you and… Gaz to know that you're what's most important to me. Every hour I spend in the day is in the name not just of science, but for you. To make the world a better place for both of you. I'm sorry that I get so preoccupied with it that I forget how important it is to actually be here for you."  
  
Dib adjusted his glasses, uncertain of what was happening. It felt good in a way to have his father tell him how important he and his sister were, but at the same time it was unsettling. Where was this all leading? He didn't have to wait long for his answer.  
  
"Dib, this may be a bit of a shock to you, but Gaz isn't really your sister. At least.. not in the most correct sense." "She's an alien?" Dib gaped. His father sighed. "No, she's a weapon. She's the end product of a research project that your mother and I were working on for most of our earlier lives." His father leaned back as Dib stared in disbelief. "We genetically engineered an organism that would ideally be able to channel energy. It was a sort of game at first. Creating a person capable of creating energy distortions? We had no idea really what we were doing. We just made up a theory and got an enormous grant to fund the absurd notion of an ultimate weapon. Your mother supplied the base genetic material for each of our attempts." He tossed in the last sentence almost as an afterthought.  
  
"When you were six months old, when Project Gazelle's latest engineered sample had reached the breakthrough phase of a full month of development.." he trailed off hesitantly, and Dib knew what was to follow. "..your mother died." He finally admitted, as if he carried some deep personal blame for the fact. As his father leaned forward to rest his suddenly heavy head in his hands, Dib finally overcame his shock enough to ask a question.  
  
"Project… Gazelle?" he whispered softly, feeling the taste of faint familiarity as the words rolled lazily off his tongue. "That's what your mother called it. When she wrote up the proposal for the project, she claimed that our 'superweapon' would be swift as a gazelle, and unstoppable as a hurricane." He laughed humorlessly. "Was it.. Gaz's fault that Mom died?" Dib asked softly, not even sure that he wanted to know the answer to his question. "It was no one's fault, Dib. Certainly not Gaz's. She was barely bigger than a mouse and not, to the best of science's knowledge, aware of anyone or anything. It was an accident, pure and simple."  
  
He paused for a moment, watching Dib turn this over in his mind before nodding. His poor son, cursed to a life without a mother, and with a father who was never there for him. No wonder the poor boy was slowly becoming insane.  
  
"It took many months for me to get interested in the project again. I couldn't really see the point in it anymore. It had been a government- funded game to us, and now it was just me. I almost pulled the plug on the support system more times than I can recall. Finally it was the simplest thing that stayed my hand. She had a soft halo of purple fuzz, you could barely call it hair, on her head. From the first moment that I noticed it, I couldn't bring myself to terminate the project. When she was born a couple of months after your first birthday, I introduced you to her. I could practically see the bond that formed between you two. You thought she was some marvelous new toy, and she was fascinated by you, the first living thing she'd ever seen that was close to her own size."  
  
"I suddenly realized one day that I couldn't ever tell anyone that the project had been a success. I couldn't give up Gaz to some institution or lock her in a sanitized environment to be studied like a lab rat. She'd become a real, precious little girl, and I couldn't stand the idea that As a lark I'd helped create her to fulfill some hollow selfish purpose like advancing my own career." He straightened suddenly. "How long has she been doing these things, Dib?" Dib blinked in surprise. He'd been so caught up in the narrative that being asked a question threw his mind completely off track. "Things?" "Influencing the weather, electricity, anything unusual at all."  
  
Dib faltered. "Uh… I dunno… she's always done… weird stuff, but especially here recently. I just figured that it was part of her being… her." His father mumbled softly to himself. "It is. Dib, this increased activity must be being triggered by the hormonal shifts of pre-adolescence. They'll only increase in activity and visibility as she gets older."  
  
There was a soft clatter of plastic hitting the floor. Both Dib and his father whirled as if they'd been shot at with a high-powered laser. "I… I…" Gaz stammered, staring at her father with wide eyes. "Gaz? Honey?" She grabbed the lamp off of the nearby table and flung it at her father. "NO! NO! Leave me alone! I hate you! I hate you all! Why don't you all just die and leave me ALONE!?" she screamed, running towards the front door and out into the monsoon that raged outside, now stronger than before.  
  
Dib smelled something like charring upholstery and looked down to see that the sofa had begun to smoulder. He shoved himself to his feet and away from the offending piece of furniture as his father did the same. Seconds later, the sofa was engulfed in flame. Automated sprinklers dropped from the ceiling to douse the fire with cold water, soaking them both. "And to think, I always wondered why the house has all these "safety devices"." He muttered.  
  
"Dib, go after her. She's not responsible for this, she doesn't mean it. I'm going to the lab to get back to work on trying to find a way to muffle her abilities to a manageable level. Her emotional state is making her excitable, so be careful. Right now, you and I have to keep anyone from finding out what she's capable of… or…" he didn't need to finish the sentence. Dib nodded and dashed for the door. He didn't bother grabbing an umbrella, thanks to the sprinklers he was as wet as he could get, anyway. As he ran down the street, he was seized by an awful thought…  
  
What if Zim discovered this perfect weapon in her hour of distress? Was there some way the alien could convince her to ally with him? They both hated all humanity. Or at least Gaz claimed to. There was no telling what he could convince her to do in her state. Dib forced his stride to lengthen as he searched frantically for his sister. That was, when it came down to it, what she was, after all. 


	3. Eye of the Storm

A/Notes: Wow… I'm astounded that anyone actually read this story, let alone reviewed it. Thanks a lot to you who did! Hopefully this story won't end up sucking completely, lol. Thanks again, I appreciate it!  
  
  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Gaz ran through the torrential downpour. She wasn't certain about anything. Who was she? What was she? Was she really somehow causing all this bedlam? She was barely two blocks away from her home, and already she was as thoroughly soaked through as if she'd jumped into a swimming pool fully dressed. She was aware of the wind, but didn't feel cold. No sensation of chill touched her at all. Instead, it felt as if there was an active volcano inside of her, molten stone raging like a stormy sea. It rose, threatening to erupt and spill burning destruction over everything in sight. She ran on, refusing to cry, denying the urge to show some weakness. She didn't know where she was running to, but she kept throwing herself down the sidewalk as if borne on the steep wind itself.  
  
Dib tugged at his coat collar. This weather was crazy! Icy freezing wind that threatened to grab him aloft and throw him out into the sky, away from the reassuring shelter of the ground, and the rain! When it had begun, it had been like icicles flung from the sky, but now it was warm. Too warm, in fact. The precipitation was almost hot, in fact. The hot water soaked into his clothing, making him uncomfortable, and the wind that screamed past tore at his exposed skin, chilling him to the bone.  
  
This was more incredible than any paranormal phenomena he'd ever heard of, save only perhaps for spontaneous combustion. 'How is Gaz doing all this?' he wondered as he clung to a swaying lamp post. The rain increased in intensity. He pushed his dripping, dangling hair away from his face and blinked at the scene through his all but useless glasses. 'What happened to her that she can do these things?' He realized, belatedly, that it shouldn't have been such a shock to have Gaz's strange inclinations confirmed. Hadn't he felt and seen evidence of strange abilities off and on her whole life? The angry fog that would trail her when she was irritated but biding her time, her strange ability to seemingly hover in mid-air?  
  
'Gee Dib,' a voice glibly called from the back of his mind, 'For such a darned paranormal expert, you're really inobservant!' Dib thumped himself in the back of his head. 'Ow!' the voice responded, 'Don't get so touchy! I'm just pointing out that it should have been obvious!' Dib shook his head and continued his slow, half-blind search for his sister. "Just shut up in there unless you've got something useful to say!" He pulled off his glasses in an attempt to see past the rivulets that streamed down both sides of the lenses. He blinked, swiped at his face again, and quietly swore as he put them back on. Better to be half-blind than totally lost in an unfocused fog, he decided.  
  
As he staggered along down the street, he watched the people scrambling out of the unholy weather back to the safety of their homes. He realized suddenly that he really had no way of tracking Gaz other than to try and keep track of where the foul weather was localized. It stood to reason that as the source of the disturbances, she would be in the center of them. He staggered under a neighbors car port and swiped at his glasses again, trying to get a decent look at the sky. Dark, angry clouds were moving towards the tall jagged skyline that marked the downtown area.  
  
That pesky inner voice chose that moment to pipe up again. 'You know, Gaz would make an excellent specimen for..' "SHUT UP!" Dib screamed aloud. No one could have heard his cry in the raging storm, but he found himself looking around quickly anyway. "Gaz is no experiment! She's my sister!" he whispered to himself fiercely. 'But she WAS an experiment, wasn't she?' the voice persisted. Dib shook his head sharply. "Once, back so far I didn't know she existed, maybe she started that way. But Dad introduced her to me as my sister, and from that moment on, that's what she was." His voice grew louder and he realized a moment later that he was shouting. "Gaz is my SISTER! And she always WILL BE!"  
  
A new thought occurred to him as he paused, throat hoarse and lungs aching for breath. If some other paranormal investigator, one not as attached to Gaz as he was caught wind of these strange happenings… was it possible that they might attempt to capture her? Suddenly a world of terrifying possibilities for his sister opened up, and Dib was once again running desperately after the worst part of the tempest.  
  
Zim's eyes, shielded only by contact lenses, darted back and forth between his side of the large, slightly greasy window and the scene on the outside. Which was worse? Having the last of his paste-shield battered off of his sensitive skin by the incomprehensibly raging elements and then dying a horrible death being dissolved by the caustic, hateful water… or remaining where he was. The alien gulped nervously, looking back at the display of freakish dancing puppets and mindless gorging that was Bloaty's Pizza Hog Restaurant. Madness. Utter madness. His frantic eyes darted back to the world on the other side of the glass. Well, better madness than screaming death by precipitation.  
  
As he backed away from the booth window, Zim gave a small involuntary shudder. What sort of despicable world was this, where acid rained from the sky? He made a very embarrassing squeaky noise of surprise as first a pig- like hat and then the head of the small robot that it was resting up popped up from underneath the table. "Gummy gum! Want some?" GIR asked giddily, pleased with his rhyming capabilities and the wealth of pre-chewed substance he'd discovered on the underside of the table.  
  
Zim shuddered again. "This is worse than your nauseating… pizza… stuff." GIR's head cocked slightly to the side, not quite comprehending his master's words. "I'll share with yoooouuuuuuu!" he promised, again extending a wad of the stuff in his small metallic hand towards the revolted irken. "GIR! Do you realize that… that FILTH has been in some human's mouth!?" Zim cried, gingerly swatting at the offering in an effort to get it away from him. GIR's tongue popped out of his mouth in a silly- looking smile as he vigorously nodded.  
  
Zim felt a big wad of gagginess building up in the back of his throat. "Just keep it away from me," he growled in irritation. "And put your suit back on!" he hissed as an afterthought. Had Zim not been slouched down in resigned fury at being a prisoner of the elements in such a demented house of madness, he might have noticed that a small girl had just entered the restaurant. Then again, given his generally dim view of humans and their trifling affairs, he might not have at that. 


	4. The Surprise at Bloaty's

A/Note: Just a word of caution here, there's some point of view stuff going on, so you'll probably notice that Zim and GIR's views of things don't quite "match". But could you really expect them to? Oh, and Kat23a, I did some more explaining on how Zim ended up at Bloaty's after you pointed out it was sort of foggy.  
  
Chapter Four  
  
GIR sang a happy song of cheese, second-hand gum, and cheap plush toys as he watched the depressed-looking waitress approach the small corner booth that he and his master had claimed. He was happy. He loved the walk that they had been enjoying, the friendly sky-water that had paid them a visit, the yummy pizza that was set down before them, and especially he loved his master. Master was wonderful. He'd known it for as long as he'd had function. His master took care of him, gave him toys, brought him to pizza restaurants to eat such wonderful things.  
  
He squealed and waved his arms from within the warm fuzzy confines of his puppy disguise. He loved master. His master was the best master in the whole universe! Master Zim was wonderful!  
  
Zim groaned unhappily. He was definitely NOT happy. At least he'd finally managed to coax his small robot companion into donning his disguise again. That was the only encouraging spot so far in this totally wretched day. First GIR had gone running out of the house, completely sans-costume, screeching like a maniac about something he couldn't quite understand for all the high-pitched warbling that the "advanced" SIR unit was emitting.  
  
So of course, he'd screamed his typical "AGHHHHHH! No GIR, you'll blow our cover!" scream and run out in broad daylight without his own disguise on and hadn't noticed until a dozen blocks later when he'd finally caught the robot.  
  
One of his wretched classmates had waved at him and asked him if he was doing something different with his hair. He'd quickly thrown on his wig and contacts and immediately denied any knowledge of what the miserable disgusting earth brat was talking about, but just as he'd almost convinced the insignificant worm that he'd hallucinated, that stinking Dib-monster had appeared. It had been a short fight, but an exhausting one. Dib staggered off to "plan for tomorrow night", whatever that was supposed to mean, and Zim had been left to return his attention to the robot that had again wandered off.  
  
It had taken nearly an hour, but Zim had finally regained whatever control that he could claim over the small android after finding him standing before a human-store selling televisions that happened to be displaying the scary monkey show. Then the rain had begun as they tried to journey home. First scattered tempermental showers, then a great deluge so fierce that he could feel the faint stinging sensation that warned of the immanent failure of his paste-shield.  
  
He'd been forced to give up returning to his base for the moment, ducking into this frightening asylum. The "greatest invader" of the Irken Empire sighed as his robot assistant began to emit delighted cheers. Why GIR was looking in his direction rather than towards the unimpressed waitress delivering his gooey pizza mess was strange, but he gave the matter no thought. His head hurt, his own needs for nutrition were beginning to bother him, and he felt rather light-headed from all the manic "entertainment" and the rampant smell of grease.  
  
All told, it hadn't been a very fabulous day for Invader Zim. He stared down at the table, briefly considering the idea of laying his head down and waiting for the psychotic reign of madness to end. No, not a good idea, he decided. The table's surface shine was not the glorious lemony gleam of cleanliness, it was the evil misleading shimmer of more dirty, disgusting grease. He shivered and turned his head to watch the rain fling itself hatefully against the sidewalk as if propelled by some incredible desire to erode away the stubborn concrete.  
  
"I love the peppy-roooooni!" GIR crooned, setting a slice carefully on his head like a beret. Long thin stretches of cheese adorned his face and bits of pineapple stuck to his paws. "Peppy-peppy-rooni-roni!"  
  
Zim's eyes narrowed as GIR climbed onto the table to dance joyfully around the half-empty pizza dish. There were times when he seriously questioned the wisdom of the Almighty Tallest, truly their wisdom was a mystery to him in this case. He startled suddenly as the wind outside changed direction and the rain was slung straight at the sticky window. Almost like it was trying to get in. Trying to get at him. The short irken slid away from the doubtful protection of the glass.  
  
"Gir." The robot ceased dancing and saluted smartly. "Yes, sir!" Zim shook his head. "I'll be… doing something… on the other side of the room. Stay here until I return. Stay! I command it!" he ordered, attempting to press the command firmly into the robot's mind. "Ooookie dokie!" GIR cried, handing his beloved master a pizza slice before resuming his dance. "I should know better." Zim sighed, holding the supposed food at arm's length and marching resolutely across the room. He could only hope that the terrible weather would end soon and he'd be free to return to his base and sleep off this horrible experience.  
  
  
  
Dib staggered down the street, wind-blown, rain-soaked, and generally not feeling at his best as he forced his way down the steaming sidewalk. Now in the full fury of storm, he was clueless as to his sister's whereabouts. "Let's see… if I was Gaz and I was mad at the world, where would I go?" he whispered to himself. His water-streaked glasses caught the glare of neon and his head raised in response.  
  
A slight smile began to form for the first time in hours on his face. "I'd go to my favorite place!" he exclaimed, dashing towards the flickering sign that rose above Bloaty's.  
  
A small girl with deep violet hair sat by herself somewhere inside the restaurant, unhappily hugging her arms around her shoulders. She sniffled softly, the only indication that she was aware of her sorry- looking condition. Her hair was plastered to her head in stringy dripping clumps and her clothing was in a similar state of "beyond damp"-ness. A black boot pausing in front of her made her look hesitantly up. "Take this, so I may be free of its' nasty gooiness." A voice commanded her.  
  
Dib threw open the doors to the restaurant and began frantically scanning the room for any sign of his sister. "Let's see… crying babies, fat basement dwellers who still think they're twelve, depressed parents, Zim's dog thing, suicidal employees…. ZIM'S DOG THING!?" he screeched in horror, earning himself a friendly wave from the robot who was rolling around on the floor for some reason. "Zim's here!? Now!? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO MAKE YOU HATE ME, FATE!?" he screamed at the ceiling. A paper cup thrown by an irritated patron bounced unheeded off his head.  
  
"I've gotta find Gaz!" he gasped, running into the depths of the restaurant. "It could already be too late, but I've got to try! I've got to- GAZ!?" he shrieked, spotting the back of a purple-haired head attached to a girl that was apparently being confronted by the very alien menace he'd been dreading. Zim was pushing a slice of pizza toward the girl, who hesitated.  
  
"Get away from my sister Zim! I won't let you buy her with junk food!" he leapt heroically across the room, grabbing the girl and yanking her back towards him protectively. Zim, surprisingly enough, didn't immediately deploy his spider-like mechanical legs and attempt to defeat him. Zim simply stood there, looking at him skeptically.  
  
"Hey… who are you?" a voice asked. Then there was a scream. "AGGHHH! You're that Dib-freak! Get away from me, freak!" the little girl screeched, beating her would-be rescuer in the head with her fists. Dib looked down at his charge, startled. A small girl, about Gaz's height but with bright green eyes behind her obnoxiously thick glasses glared up at him. With a final yank she freed herself, somehow slapping him in the face with her wet hair as she departed.  
  
"Definitely not Gaz." Dib observed. But even as he turned to threaten Zim with the 'watery drip of death' if the alien didn't stop laughing, he couldn't help but wonder where his sister had gone. 


	5. Of Leprechauns and Demons

A/Note: Sorry to anyone who's annoyed that this chapter took so long. I've been waging war with the dandelions in my yard and doing stuff. As you can probably imagine, it's been a losing battle. Anyway, on to the next chapter!  
  
  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Gaz sat on a crate in the alley behind Bloaty's. She'd run here with every intention of going in, of drowning her sorrows and confusion in scaldingly hot marinara sauce and gooey cheese. But then she'd stopped, just short of the doors that stood beckoning her with the promise of cheap mock-Italian food. She'd stepped to the side and stared in through the rain- streaked window, watching the other children inside.  
  
The other, normal children. She hated them.  
  
She'd stalked back here to sulk, where she still remained. What was she going to do? Where would she go? She raised her eyes as a faint scuffling sound caught her attention. She tensed, ready to throw something at any foolish would-be attacker. The sound came again, and she traced it to its source; the trash can directly across from her. The damp papers in the top of the can shivered and began to part. Certain that some deranged hobo was about to jump her, Gaz grabbed an empty pizza box, the only convenient excuse for a weapon.  
  
"Meew?" A pair of ears, a set of whiskers, and finally a bright blue set of eyes emerged. Gaz set the box down and gave a self-conscious laugh as she walked to the can and reached for the tiny wet ball of gray fur. "You're alone too, huh?" she whispered. The kitten shivered and did its best to purr despite the cold and wet. "Poor thing. At least you know what you are. I'm not so sure anymore." The kitten squirmed around, situating itself more comfortably so that it could begin to lick the excess water from its fur.  
  
Gaz petted the damp animal gently and sat it down on the crate before joining it on the damp box. "I mean… okay… so I can do kinda strange stuff. I always kinda… thought I was imagining stuff like that when I noticed it. I mean, people don't do stuff like this. I… Well… I don't know what to do." She finished, her voice trailing off to a soft whisper. She began to feel a little angry. "It's not fair. Why should I have to deal with this? Why did Dad… and M-mom…?" A few hot furious tears squeezed from her eyes and her small pale hands clenched into tight fists.  
  
The kitten stopped cleaning its fur and looked up sharply at the bedraggled girl. Gaz didn't notice the change in the cat's demeanor until it hissed sharply at her and scurried away. But she was beyond caring about the animal at the moment. She was startled out of her moment of introspection with the clatter of toppling garbage cans. As she watched numbly, the containers and boxes littering the alley shuddered and were thrust aside as if some enormous angry creature was stalking around her, striking out at each convenient target.  
  
"Is… this me? Am I doing this!?" Gaz stared around her, wide-eyed, as the invisible creature systematically destroyed the alley. She backed away nervously as the path of destruction began to circle back towards her. She turned and ran blindly. Down the street, past the stores, through the driving rain and the howling wind. She imagined that the monster, the cyclone… whatever it was that she could feel behind her was gaining. Or was she imagining it? She dared not look back to see. On and on she fled, with no intention of stopping.  
  
But stop she did, when she collided with something tall and dark that gave a loud, almost feminine yelp of surprise. In her shock at the encounter, Gaz forgot about the thing behind her, and it faded out of existence for the time being.  
  
Gaz stared up at what, for a ridiculous three seconds of eternity, she could have sworn was an older, taller version of her brother. Dib… what did he think of her now?  
  
"AGH! Back, evil leprechaun!"  
  
On second thought… even Dib wasn't that stupid. The strange man grabbed her arm. "Wait! On second thought, you have to grant me three wishes and the keys of universal power!" Gaz slapped his hand away. "Who, or maybe I should say WHAT the heck are you supposed to be?" The tall man grinned. "I'm an… investigator. A special agent, you might say. You can call me… Bill." He glanced warily to the left and right as if afraid someone might have overheard him. Gaz glared at him. "You're stupid. I'm out of here."  
  
"You're not going anywhere! Give me the keys!" Bill cried, grabbing the girl and nearly shaking her in his excitement. "You won't cooperate? Then I'll have no choice but to sell you to some laboratory! They'll be delighted to have REAL proof of your existence!"  
  
Frightened beyond reason by the strange, possibly crazy "investigator", Gaz gained her freedom with a quick kick to his shin. The anger came more quickly this time. It surged up, out, and around like a welcome warm shroud of protection. "Leave. Me. Alone." Gaz whispered, her voice a coarse, menacing growl. The man who had called himself Bill straightened, and glared at her. "So you're not a leprechaun after all…" he mused, his glare turning thoughtful. "Perhaps a demon…?"  
  
Gaz shrank back slightly under the accusation. "I'm just a little girl!" she insisted, backing away from him fearfully. The waves of comforting anger splashed and surged around her, reassuringly. "I'm not a monster! I'm not! I'm just a little girl!" Abruptly Bill was seized by something that felt like a stronger, more malevolent extension of her own arm. She looked down just to be sure. Her own arms were at her sides, her hands clutching nervously at her black dress. She looked back up in time to see that Bill had been raised above her head. He hung there, kicking out futilely at the blank nothingness that held him. Finally he was thrown a few yards away with a satisfying surge of power.  
  
Gaz felt the smile flit fitfully across her face at the sight, then fade as she realized that it had been there. What was happening to her? The warm anger that had been so reassuring seconds before was suddenly too hot. Uncomfortable. Frightening, even. She stayed only long enough to see that the strange man was still moving, still alive, then she turned and began to run again. A series a thunderous, low-frequency shudders in the air behind her announced all too readily that the… whatever it was… was definitely still following her.  
  
  
  
"Out of my way, Zim!" Dib shouted, attempting to shove the alien aside. But Zim pushed back with strength that startled his human opponent. "What's the hurry, *Dib*? Did you lose something?" This time it was Dib who was the surprising one, grabbing the irken's collar. "What do you mean by that? Where's my sister!?" Zim recovered sufficiently to slap the boy's hands away. "I have no interest in where your smelly little sibling is, Dib. What would I want with her, anyway?"  
  
There was something about the way that Dib started to respond, and then paled and spun away, looking as if he had just shut himself up in a hurry, that caught his rival's attention. "You believe that I *would* be interested? How… interesting." Dib's face shot back up into view, his eyes appearing even larger than usual. "Leave her alone, Zim! Leave her alone!" The boy quieted then, and looked thoughtful. "You don't know what you'd be dealing with. I'm not even sure that I do."  
  
Zim's phony violet-blue irised eyes narrowed. "You speak in foolish riddles." Dib shrugged. "I've got to find her. She… needs help." He looked so lost suddenly. It was a sobering reminder of how young and alone the sole defender of the Earth really was. Dib's facial expression suddenly hardened. "I'm warning you now. You try anything Zim… I'll… I'll kill you."  
  
Zim blinked as Dib turned and ran back outside, almost as if he was pursuing the storm that had begun to move away from the pizza restaurant. A ridiculous notion. But then, so much that had happened today was unexpected. The storm itself, ending up in this filthy excuse for a food producing center, and then there was the whole conversation with the Dib- monkey. Dib? Threaten to kill him? That was new. Threaten to expose him? Sure. Promise to autopsy him? Certainly. But declare an intention to be the cause of his demise? That wasn't typical. He usually preserved that "honor" for some high-ranking scientist or laboratory.  
  
Zim scratched his chin as he considered it all. Unnoticed, GIR trotted up to his master to offer him a slice of cherry tart dessert pizza. The irken stood there, perfectly still. For a moment, GIR fancied that his master had thought so hard that his brain had turned to pencil shavings. He gave a happy cheer when Zim muttered to himself and began to walk towards the door. "Master's brain still works!" he gleefully informed a very confused two year old human child as he skipped past.  
  
"GIR." GIR jumped in front of his master, and saluted, eyes flashing red under the hood of his puppy suit. "The Dib human is behaving oddly. Abnormally aggressively, even." "oOOOooooOoo…" GIR cooed appreciatively. "Yes," Zim agreed with the diminutive robot's assessment. "I believe that it could be vitally important to our mission to find out why. We must observe him, GIR. He is attempting to locate his… sister. For some reason, he thinks that we would attempt to possess her or something she has." GIR squealed and leapt upward to land on his master's shoulder.  
  
"We gonna find th' Gazzy-girl?" Zim nodded curtly. "We'll find Gaz, figure out what it is that is causing her brother's odd behavior. And then see if we can use it to our advantage. He was afraid, GIR. Truly afraid for the first time in our acquaintance. I MUST KNOW WHYYYYYYY!" A few of the restaurant's patrons turned around just in time to see the poorly-disguised alien and his pet robot steal five umbrellas from the doorway stand and rush out into the fading storm. 


	6. The Revelation of Membrane

A/Note: Wow, it's been awhile since I updated, hasn't it? Thanks a lot to all of you who've reviewed this! And Mysterious Dr. X…. well, you asked for it! Uh, angsty guilt-tripping does count as showing you care about your family, right? As for Dib's "insanity"… I'm not sure yet if that'll enter into it more fully, lol. Well anyway, here we go again..  
  
  
  
Chapter Six: The Revelation of Membrane  
  
Splash. Another chemical reaction. Another unforeseen interaction. Another failure.  
  
Blast it all.  
  
Professor Membrane sighed much more heavily than a man whom the world believed infallible should have been capable of. It was all his fault. He had done this to an innocent little girl, why couldn't he undo it? He reached up slowly and pulled the goggles away from his eyes, then purposefully removed the thick rubber gloves. Finally the heavily starched, perfectly bleached lab coat was cast off. With all his physical shielding, the trappings of the great and glorious "Professor Membrane, the man without whom this world falls into CHAOS!!" gone, he stood there alone in his laboratory; a tall, thin man now revealed wearing black, that none of his legions of fans would recognize as their idol, blinking in the suddenly uncomfortably bright light.  
  
He sighed again and walked up the stairs. Thus far, the quest to find a way to chemically subdue the elements he and his late wife had used to give Gaz her abilities had been completely useless. There was always some reaction that would almost certainly prove fatal or excruciatingly painful for the girl. The girl? His daughter.  
  
He walked slowly through the house, taking in the everyday sights that his children saw so often but he barely recognized. How long had there been so many things in the house that looked like him? Lamps, trash cans…? He shook his head in confusion as he passed through the living room. Few pictures of their family adorned the walls, he noticed suddenly. Mostly, it was newspaper clippings and images of himself standing with famous figures from across the globe that filled the frames he passed as he traveled up the stairs and down the hall.  
  
First on the tour came Gaz's room. The flick of a light switch revealed little he didn't already know. At least, at first sight. He strode carefully, almost cautiously into the room, taking in the messy, unmade bed, the stacks of video game magazines, the neatly sorted cartridges that lined her shelf. A lone plush toy sat on top, keeping guard on the trove. He reached to pick it up, struggling to place the nagging memory that it whispered to him.  
  
He almost dropped the toy as it suddenly came back to him. Gaz's second birthday. A touring carnival had been in town and she (with some help from Dib) had successfully begged him into taking them for an afternoon's distraction. She'd seen this stuffed dragon, with its green body and purplish wings, sitting in a game booth and had fallen in love. With, as he'd explained to both entranced children, a perfect balance of inertia and thrust coupled with his perfect knowledge of physics to aid in deciphering precisely where to strike the stack of obviously weighted milk bottles, he'd won it for Gaz. She had smiled so gratefully that tears could be seen shimmering in her eyes.  
  
"Thank you, Daddy! I love him! I'll keep him always…" And so far, it seemed, she had. In such perfect condition that the creature looked as if it had come home only yesterday.  
  
As he moved to replace the animal… he knew for a fact that it had a name, but found to his consternation that he couldn't place it at the moment, back on its spot on the shelf, he knocked over a stack of periodicals that had been nudged aside by his boot. Beneath the issues of "Gaming Gore Monthly" and "High Scorer's Digest", he saw something that amazed him even more than the stuffed dragon had. Setting the now forgotten toy down, he knelt to inspect the books that had been scattered on the floor. Large volumes of Poe, Dickens and Kipling gazed up at him disdainfully.  
  
He recognized these, also. Why shouldn't he have? Every date, he had brought a certain young woman a new book. She'd amassed quite a library by the time he'd finally worked up the nerve to propose to her by sneaking a diamond ring into a hollowed out volume with a note apologizing for the book's sad demise. "I know you love Asimov, but I'm hoping that you love me even more." She'd been delighted with his typical flamboyancy, and agreed. Soon afterward, both she and her collection of literature had taken up residence with him. After her death, he'd locked the door to her study and vowed never to open it again. Obviously Gaz had managed to get into it, however.  
  
Such heavy books. And about such weighty subjects for such a small girl. He backed out of the room slowly, barely remembering to turn off the light.  
  
Next came Dib's room, a strange cave of posters that glowed eerily under black lights, piles of strange monstrous toys and magazines about UFOs. What sort of children did he have, he wondered suddenly. Dib, his energetic, ambitious… perhaps a little crazy son… always looking for a new mystery to solve, some equation, even if it was imaginary, that he needed… to… master…  
  
"Oh my… god." Professor Membrane whispered softly. More memories flashed before his eyes. First the day that he'd come home to discover that Dib and the babysitter had apparently managed to teach his little sister to say "Daddy". They'd both been so delighted in the game, so happy. The next recollection wasn't as pleasant. It had been only two years since his children had greeted him at the door with their surprise. He'd been becoming more active in the scientific community again. Bettering the world for the two kids that thought the world of him. Or so he'd thought. He'd barely noticed at the time, but now in retrospect he could clearly see that Dib had begun modeling himself after his father. Trying to find cures to things, even if it meant trying to prove the existence of, and then capturing the inevitable monsters under the bed. Had the day really been so gray and foreboding when he'd asked Dib what he and his sister done all day, and the boy had responded "**I** went outside and looked for the werewolf that's been getting into the trash."  
  
"What about Gaz?"  
  
"Oh she watched TV or something stupid like that, I guess." He had shrugged it off at the time, but now it stung him like an accusation. No wonder Gaz had become such a withdrawn, angry introvert… first he, and then her brother had seemingly abandoned her; too interested in conquering their own worlds.  
  
It suddenly struck Professor Membrane that there was a lot more that needing fixing than he'd been letting himself believe.  
  
  
  
A/Note: Dang, it just keeps getting darker, doesn't it? Break out the flashlights, folks! 


	7. The Invisible Grip

A/Note: Cripes, how long has it been since I updated? Huh. That long? Well this story's not dead, just having difficulty progressing. I know where the characters are and where I want them to go, but I've had some trouble getting them there. Finally I had to buy Dib bus fare to get him to his next stage in the story! That cheapskate. he'd better pay me back! Okay, on with the story.  
  
Chapter Seven: The Invisible Grip  
  
Gaz staggered to a halt in an unfamiliar neighborhood, too exhausted to continue running from the monstrousity that casually kept up with her. She fell forward heavily onto her hands and knees, scraping her palms on the rough, damp pavement. Her face felt hot, her perception was hampered by dizziness, and she could feel tears brimming forth from her eyes from the pain both within and without.  
  
From deep within she found a bubble of resolve and latched onto it desperately. Gaz pushed herself up into a sitting position, arms trembling with the effort. "I won't be beaten by this," she whispered softly. "I won't! If it is me that's doing this, then I can control it! Somehow." She winced slightly as she wiped her stinging palms on her dress; and hugged her knees to her chest as she sat on the sidewalk. Strange tall houses loomed over her, but she could detect no trace of the otherworldly apparition that had stalked her through the alleys.  
  
The street was deserted, not a soul was in sight. While the truth of the matter was probably that the citizenry had retreated indoors from the bizarre weather that had stalked through the town all evening, the effect was that Gaz was completely and totally alone. Barricaded outside by the "normal" people. They feared the unknown, the strangeness of it all. And thus, it followed that they must fear her as well.  
  
She gazed silently around her in consternation, thoroughly lost; thoroughly miserable. Gaz finally turned her gaze down to the ground. She'd always known that she was different. Unique. A freak? People had always regarded her with at least a little trepidation. Those younger than she had shrank back from her with respectful fear. The ones her own age had ostracized her, classifying her as an outcast. And nearly everyone older than herself looked at her as if she had some terrible deformity that it wasn't polite to mention, but so glaringly obvious that they couldn't help but stare at it.  
  
It seemed that her father had no time for her after he discovered that he could hire a babysitter to tend to her needs until she and Dib were old enough to take care of themselves. In fact it was a rare occurrence for the siblings to have so much as a meal with their father more than once a year. And of course, to the savior of all humanity, those family functions were always expendable to the siren song of a crisis in some all but unheard of country on the other side of the world.  
  
Her brother, Dib, had been there for her at first. To hold her hand when she was crying and assure her that Daddy would be home soon and make whatever was bothering her better; to come in with a flashlight to chase off nightmares on the nights when their father *still* wasn't home yet. But then he'd stopped caring too. He thought of her as a sidekick or just an audience when he thought of her at all.  
  
The small girl sitting on the curb choked back a small sob. Traitors, both of them. They would rather save the rest of humanity, the people whose intelligence they questioned daily, than have anything to do with her.  
  
She wasn't going to cry. She wasn't going to cry.  
  
Gaz pressed her forehead against her knees, rocking back and forth slightly. What had she done to turn them against her? Certainly she'd fought with Dib a lot. But it was because he did stuff to her first that bugged her. Had she done something so terribly wrong to him that he'd forsaken her? And alienated her father in the process?  
  
Why did she have to be this way? Why? She'd never asked for this. Never, ever wanted it! She sat there rocking slowly on the sidewalk until she lost track of time, caught up in a confusing maelstrom of existential unhappiness.  
  
  
  
A strange sound caught her attention, bringing her out of the depressing whirlpool of self-questioning for a moment. She raised her head slightly, glancing guardedly to the left and right in search of the source of the humming noise. Seeing nothing unusual only deepened her conviction that something was wrong. She leaned back, preparing to stand and face the unseen threat.  
  
When a falling robot wearing a green puppy suit landed roughly in her lap, she knew she had a pretty good idea what the source of the disturbance was. She looked up to see the rounded shape of a small alien spaceship with it's even smaller alien owner leaning out of it.  
  
"GIR! What are you doing! Get back up here this instant!" Zim shouted, readjusting his wig from where it had slid just slightly down his forehead. The robot stood, saluted, and began jumping up and down with all its' might in an earnest attempt to reach the ship hovering overhead. Zim sighed heavily. "Nevermind, GIR. I'll just land the ship." He muttered. The robot ceased his frenetic leaping up and down with a happy hum, and turned to stare in a disturbingly unblinking way at the girl he'd landed on.  
  
Gaz stared back, unsure what to make of the unpredictable robot. GIR leaned forward, and made a shushing motion at her as if he were about to divulge a worlds-shattering secret. She waited as he glanced back at his master's landing ship, then leaned back towards her again.  
  
"Lemmings are devouring my innards!" the dysfunctional SIR unit whispered softly, then GIR stepped quickly back away from her with a small satisfied smile. Gaz blinked. "Whatever."  
  
Zim's disguised eyes flitted back and forth across the street. It went against his every instinct to just land his Voot cruiser out in plain sight like this. Making certain that he had indeed parked the craft in a legal space (it would be horribly embarrassing for an invader to have his personal ship towed, after all), he turned back towards GIR and Dib's sister. The Gaz was a much, much more dangerous specimen than her brother. He knew that already. He'd encountered her seldom, but after the briefest of glances, even a fool knows a predator from a pebble.  
  
But still. there was Dib's behavior to consider. The human filth was so anxious about his sister. So concerned that he, the great Zim, might find her first. It had to be important, Zim reasoned. It HAD to be worth the risk. Steeling his nerves, he decided to make as impressive an approach as he could.  
  
Gaz's eyes actually widened a bit as she watched Zim disembark from his ship. The front hatch slid effortlessly open and the alien's admittedly bad disguise lost any semblance of humanity as four long metallic jointed legs suddenly seemed to sprout from his back. As they carried him to the ground with a strange arachnid motion, she recalled Dib's voice from a conversation not too long past.  
  
"If I'm not back in time, call this number and tell them that the Mothman is caught in the Spider's web."  
  
'I wondered where he came up with the spider analogy..' she thought to herself with a grim smile as she watched the mechanical legs carry her brothers' otherworldly classmate across the sidewalk in a strange skittering motion before retracting impossibly into the device he wore on his back.  
  
Zim stood over her, expectantly watching as he spoke. "Well, my fellow.. outsider.. it seems that we have something to discuss."  
  
  
  
A/Note: Why has GIR been swallowing live lemmings? And why am I so surprised that he would be.? And where's Dib gotten to? Some of the answers next time. 


	8. Encouragement

A/Note: Yep, it's yet another chapter! *dead silence* Hey, what have I gotta do to shock you people, run a few hundred volts through you? Anyways, it's about time we caught back up with Dib and his dad, so here we go.  
  
And a big thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far! (and hey, if you want, you can see some of my weird art on Side7 now!)  
  
Chapter Eight: Encouragement  
  
Dib leaned heavily against the façade of a downtown store. He was physically and mentally exhausted, but still he had found no trace of his sister. It was as if she had vanished off the face of the Earth. The insane weather had stopped, but he'd seen little trace of other people since leaving Bloaty's. The air was still. Expectant. And almost absolutely silent. No pigeons, stray dogs or cats. it was like every living thing in the entire town had sought out shelter from some terrible event, an event that the earlier storm was only the precursor of.  
  
Not a pleasant thought at all, he reflected.  
  
He felt a rising sense of dread, himself. It twisted around the back of his mind, slithering just slightly across his consciousness. It had spurred him onward at a dead run from the time he had left the pizza restaurant until now, as he finally paused for painful breath in his aching lungs. He had to find Gaz. That feeling was only intensifying with every second that passed, he could feel that time was running out.  
  
Dib tried to take a step forward, willing himself to keep up the search. He didn't realize that he was falling until he suddenly noticed the pavement rushing up towards his face. He managed to get an arm between himself and the oncoming concrete just seconds before he hit, jarring his senses. "I can't. I can't keep going like this." Tears of frustration welled behind his rain-streaked glasses. "But. I can't give up. I have to find. Gaz."  
  
The world seemed to fade for a moment, the pain and exhaustion washing him nearly out of consciousness and into a strange dim void. 'Don't lose hope, Dib!'  
  
With a rush, the sights, smells and sounds of the outside world snapped back into focus. Dib shook his head to clear it, the echo of the strange voice still whispering to him in time with the soft persistent beeping of the watch on his wrist that doubled as a communication device. Had he imagined it? With a shaking hand, he reached towards the signaling watch.  
  
"Dib!? Son, where are you?" Dib smiled in spite of himself. His dad. It was his dad, wanting to know where he was. He was concerned! He cared! He was actually. being a father for once. "I'm. downtown. somewhere." Dib finally replied, sitting up with a grunt of effort. "I'm not really sure where I am dad. I've just been. running. Looking for Gaz." The man on the other end, still devoid of his trademark goggles and coat, gave a slight wince. "No sign of her?" Dib shook his head apologetically. "Not yet. Dad, any luck finding a way to.." "Not yet." Dib felt another spark of hope. "Dad, can you locate Gaz's com-watch?" His father held the device in question up in front of the camera with an apologetic smile. "Yes," he responded, the defeated slump of his shoulders speaking more eloquently than the words could have.  
  
Professor Membrane straightened. "Dib, all our attention right now needs to be focused on finding Gaz. That is now our first and foremost objective. I should have been out with you looking for her from the beginning. Instead of hiding in this damnable laboratory.." he barely whispered the last sentence, but his keen-eared son picked up on it anyway. "Dib, head back and we'll go look for her together."  
  
Dib considered the idea, looking around the abandoned buildings of the inner city. "I. that is. Dad, can you meet me here? I feel like. we're losing time we don't have. Like something will happen if I." Dib shook his head. "It's. silly I guess," he finished meekly, staring down at his boots.  
  
"Nonsense."  
  
The sharp tone of his father's voice caused Dib's head to pull up sharply, making the long pointy scythe-like stalk of hair atop his head bob almost comically over his wide, startled eyes. "An excellent idea. I'll get the car and follow your signal. I should be there in a few minutes." Dib nodded slightly in understanding, still large-eyed at the turn the conversation had taken. His father paused strangely, then looked almost pleadingly at his son, a faint melancholy smile forming on his oft- concealed face.  
  
"One more thing. and I know I haven't said this nearly often enough. I'm proud of you, son. Both of you." Dib stared in shock at the nearly unfamiliar face on his watch screen. He gave a nearly pained lop-sided grin and reached to end the conversation. "I love you, Dad." He cut off everything but the automated GPS signal and sat there on the wind and rain- cleaned sidewalk for a few moments.  
  
"He's proud of me..?" A wondering smile blazed abruptly across his face, and he raised his head to look at the still-cloudy sky. In private, he often found himself talking to his mother, if only to comfort himself when he felt depressed and alone. He liked to think that her spirit watched him, like a guardian angel. "You hear that Mom? Not 'My poor, insane son.' Not 'Study REAL science.' He said he's proud of me."  
  
Dib removed his glasses and wiped them on the front of his shirt, where his body heat had finally dried a section of the fabric. "He hasn't said that to me since. since third grade. I told you about that, remember Mom? When I got picked to go to the county-wide curriculum contest in the science division and represent my school for the first time?" Dib replaced his glasses, new determination and hope blooming up from within himself. He stood and shouted as loudly as he could into the empty, echoing streets. "Don't give up, Gaz! Where ever you are! We're going to find you!"  
  
With fresh resolve, Dib rose and once again began to jog down the street.  
  
"Why are you out so late, Little Gaz?"  
  
Gaz studied the alien through her trademark squint. "I have things to do." She sneered finally, turning and beginning to walk away from her brother's rival. The only reason neither of them could defeat the other was because they were evenly matched for stupidity, she thought to herself angrily.  
  
"Your brother is out looking for you. He believes that you have something dangerous." Her steps halted immediately at the words, but her face betrayed no emotion when she turned again to face him. "I do," she agreed readily. "Something very dangerous. Something that could destroy anyone who gets in my way."  
  
Zim took a halting step back at her dull monotone voice. "Indeed?" he asked, trying to mask a suddenly nervous gulp under the pretext of a casual cough. "And you intend to go out and smite your enemies with it?" Gaz turned away from the nervous irken and walked out into the street. Her head cocked to the side slightly, as if she were listening to something far away. She made a soft disgusted grunt, then slowly turned to look critically at the diminuative invader and his robot, who was merrily performing a can-can dance atop the waiting cruiser in full costume.  
  
"They all abandon me or mock me. I hate them all." Her eyes widened to a menacing glare. "You want the destruction of this world, Zim? You'll never manage it on your own." She stalked back up to him slowly, like a predator approaching potential prey. "I do too." GIR ceased flipping the hem of his frilly skirt long enough to give a happy coo. "Aw, you have something in common!" Zim's face twitched at the comment, even as Gaz continued, apparently oblivious to the remark. GIR shrugged and began to eat his costume.  
  
"I have to make them all pay." Her eyes watered without warning, and all the startled irken could do was watch in astonishment as the salty water ran down the girl's face as the sole show of her true emotions. "There's nothing here but pain. Betrayal!" Gaz ignored the tears running down her tense angry face. "It's not like I try to be like this! I never wanted to be this way!" She suddenly threw back her head and screamed as loudly as her small body was capable of projecting, fists clenched in absolute rage. "I DON'T WANT TO BE A MONSTER!"  
  
Zim looked back and forth between his ravenous SIR and the angry little girl before him. How had the situation shot out of the control of such a superior irken invader so quickly? Determined to regain some semblance of power, he moved forward on shaky legs to stand beside the enraged Gaz. "Together, we will destroy this world!" he announced, hoping she didn't notice the intimidated break that threatened to overpower his voice.  
  
GIR hopped down from the voot, and ran up to the pair. As the SIR unit giddily embraced her leg, Gaz glared in almost-tolerant fury at its' master. "We'll see Zim. We'll see." 


	9. Calamity

A/Note: Wow, this took a long time to get out. And it's short and stuff. Maybe it's at least got a little suspense, though.  
  
Chapter Nine: Calamity  
  
Gaz stared dully out the pinkish sphere of the Voot's transparishield. A dim relection of herself gazed silently back past her, perhaps at the alien pilot who she knew was glancing up at her with increasing nervousness as the trip progressed. The other Gaz looked so angry, so. enraged. As if she could explode at any moment. Her reflection was a stranger now. The person she saw in the puddles of water on the street, staring back from the windows of the stores and restauarants and now even Zim's laughably small spaceship was not someone she recognized.  
  
She felt.. strange.. almost..  
  
Empty. That was how she felt. Hollow and empty. It was as if the mirror-Gaz, the horrible characture of herself that stalked her in her reflection and stepped alongside her in her very shadow was draining her of all feeling. Her emotions were threadbare and felt worn out. Like an old winter coat that had seen too many uses, and no longer could warm the body on a cold morning.  
  
She had run from the truth, she'd screamed in fury until her lungs felt raw enough to bleed. Now she felt strangely calm. Resigned, she supposed. She'd decided what she would have to do. It all seemed perfectly. logical. There was only one thing to do. She could count on Zim's support, for what little aid he'd actually be. After all, she was giving him what he said that he wanted. As for his idiot robot, who was still insistently hugging her leg, he was obviously going to be of no help.  
  
Gaz's eyes looked up over the head of her glassy counterpart, to see the alien piloting the small magenta craft. Zim glanced at her, then hastily back to the view outside of the ship.  
  
"Do I make you nervous, Zim?" She smirked slightly as the alien jumped, his black antennae springing erect in startlement.  
  
Zim coughed, then sneered in return. "You're dripping toxic acidic fluid. I'd say I have a right to be concerned about that." Gaz didn't turn, electing instead to continue studying him through the pink-hued mirror of the ship's dome. "Perhaps," she replied. The alien felt distinctly warm a few seconds later, and hastily swerved the voot downward towards the city park. Convinced that the ship was overheating and about to explode, he pressed the pilot eject button. Eating a face full of nasty smelly Earth dirt filth was preferable to being a brief colorful explosion.  
  
"EJECT COMMAND INITIATED!"  
  
"AAGHHHH-WHUMPH!"  
  
*p-tooie!* "Ugh.. that is.. SO NASTY!" Zim blinked, suddenly remembering that his cruiser was about to go ka-blooey, and threw himself back down into the dirt, attempting to cover his head and sensitive antennae with his arms and bringing forth his spidery mechanical legs from his backpod to arch over his body and give it some additional protection.  
  
After a few tense moments, Zim noticed that the ship had failed entirely to explode in a huge wave of heat and debris behind him and sat up. The cruiser wavered slightly in the air, coasting back around slowly in a great circle, and finally landing perfectly a few feet away from where he crouched expectantly in a freshly plowed trench on his own making. The figure behind the controls stood and swung a leg over the boarding hatch.  
  
"How.. how is it possible?" he whispered, staring at the girl in shock. "How is it that you, a mere.. Earth-monkey can pilot like that?"  
  
Gaz's expression didn't change as she responded. "Practice."  
  
Zim stood shakily, retracting his metallic extensions as he regained his feet. The Gaz was a bizarre enigma, he decided. The girl jumped down from the voot, walking a short distance away and staring off into the distance. "There," she announced. "That is the most ideal place." Zim growled and dusted himself off, waving away his robot assistant.  
  
"Aw, I wanted a dancing hat, too!" GIR pouted, pointing at a large gob of grass and squirming worms that sat at a jaunty angle atop his master's head.  
  
Zim tossed the mass at the robot and looked back in the direction that the Gaz had indicated. A large electrical transformer loomed behind a safety fence a few yards beyond the scenic walkway. Anxious to see how the destruction of the pitiful human race would be accomplished by this unexpected traitor. Zim decided not to fight the urge to grin like a maniac. How fitting that it was the sister of his self-proclaimed rival who would bring about his victory. He followed the girl towards the fence.  
  
Gaz stared up at the transformer with wide eyes, wrapping her fingers around the chain link wires. She could feel it. The energy and power. It was intoxicating, invigorating. She knew what had to be done, and soon it would all be over. They would all pay with their lives. 


	10. Unleashed

A/Note: Nope, I'm not dead! Yet.. Heh heh.. I ended up reworking this into more of an explanation of how Gaz is doing what she's doing, so it's not *quite* the climax just yet. Plus I had to clarify about the facility she was using. I'm sure there's a better term for those distribution stations, but I'm used to referring to them as transformers. Beware the babble!  
  
Chapter Ten: Unleashed  
  
Gaz's intense stare didn't waver from the closed-off transformer facility, taking in the metal columns and black cables that rose like an eerie piece of playground equipment behind the protective security fence. "Not quite what I had in mind. But it will work." She muttered, squeezing the wire mesh more tightly in her pale fingers.  
  
Behind her, Zim frowned. What was the human up to? What was staring at the primitive electric power conductor going to accomplish? He had his answer as the unit began to spark. Then it spewed forth a great column of smoke as breakers were burned through too quickly for them to sever the circuits they monitored. All along the wires and cables that ran to and from the station, electricity began to dance openly. Thin sprays of power discharge began to pour down the lines as power was pulled back through them, first slowly, then much more quickly. The city's lights fluttered from the stress of the drainage.  
  
The irken ran forward, convinced something had gone horribly wrong. "What's happening!?" he shrieked, reaching towards the girl. He shrank back with a cry of alarm as a few angry tendrils of electrical power encircled his target. As he shielded his eyes, Zim deployed his mechanical legs to carry him away from the danger and towards the safety of his ship. A rather stupid idea, he realized a few seconds before the conductive metal drew a hungry bolt of energy towards his body and into the cruiser itself. The ship exploded, flinging him forwards again and leaving him dizzy and disoriented (not to mention stinging and toasty) as the unit momentarily malfunctioned from the temporary overload. "N-No.." he growled, ignoring the pain as best he could. "NO ONE BETRAYS ZIM!" The enraged irken staggered back to his feet unsteadily, pointing a shaky finger at Dib's sister.  
  
Gaz turned slowly to face him, bright bolts of energy spraying around her like great wings of light. "What am I doing? I'm preparing. I told you, I intend to destroy this world. It holds nothing but pain and bad memories." Zim stumbled as his eyes noticed another strange anomaly. Beneath her, Gaz's shadow seemed to grow, and even as the electricity poured into the ground, the darkness cast by her form didn't fade. Instead, it seemed to grow darker. And perhaps, more malevolent.  
  
Gaz broke her gaze away from the startled alien, and looked up into the sky. Heavy clouds loomed overhead, blocking out the stars. "It's time. I didn't think it would be like this," she whispered softly, not feeling the tears that had begun to slip down her cheeks. "I never wanted it to be like this. But I guess a weapon has no choice about its' function." The darkness beneath the small girl began to rise, like a strange mist that sucked in the light around it.  
  
She looked slowly back towards Zim, who gaped at her incomprehensibly. "What.. how are you doing this!?" the alien demanded, staring at her in disbelief. "I guess you could say that I'm a.. biological weapon," the girl replied with a soft, humorless laugh. "A weapon of will. I was created, I guess.. to destroy mankind." Gaz's expression hardened slightly. "I've always disliked humanity, and now I know why. I was made specifically to destroy it. And it seems appropriate enough to use man's own egocentric workings to do it." Gaz whispered, and as the lights of the city flickered one last time, the mist began to thicken as inky blackness poured out from her small form like a flood.  
  
  
  
Dib had begun to run. When the street lights had begun to flicker, he'd known that time was short. He'd followed thunderstorms in an effort to find his sister, now he ran almost blindly down the sidewalk, following the retreating path of electrical power. The thinner lines were burning through, leaving only a few high capacity lines crackling with incredible force. As the number of functioning signs and lights lessened, he had a clearer trail to follow. "Dammit, she must be pulling all the power from the entire city.." he gasped, watching the electric lines above him shake. He'd only known cables to tremble and quake in such a manner when it was either extraordinarily windy or freezingly cold outside. And right now it was neither. The storms had passed, leaving only a heavy, burdened silence in the air.  
  
Even as he ran, he knew that he was under-estimating the power surging through the lines above. Fine black flakes and a smell like scorching insulation filled the air. So much electricity was being drawn through those lines that it was burning the insulation completely off of the cables. There wasn't enough power to do that in the city, was there? A horrifying thought suddenly occurred to Dib. The stretching wires and filaments that crossed the town branched from the huge generators that his father had, of course, enhanced; and spread outward from their city connected to others. Other cities, other sources of power. Was it conceivable? How far could Gaz's unreal ability reach? How much energy could she gather? And what was she going to use it for?  
  
So intent was he on the chase, and so used to the abandoned streets that he stepped off the curb directly into the path of a speeding vehicle. The screech of tires made him look up in surprise just in time to dodge aside as his father's car swerved desperately to miss him. Dib coughed and gasped, finally managing to regain control of his shaking body enough to propel it in the direction of the stopped vehicle. "DAD!"  
  
The driver's side door flung itself open, and his father emerged, looking at least as shaken as the boy who ran towards him. "Oh Dib. Dib don't ever scare me like that again.." Professor Membrane choked, grabbing the boy aloft and hugging him fiercely. Dib nodded as his father finally released him, and pointed to the failing conductors above them as another cable broke apart from the stress. "Dad, I think Gaz is doing this.. somehow." He fearfully looked up at his father's face, unsure of what was going to happen. "Dad? We're going to save her, aren't we? We- can save her, right?"  
  
Professor Membrane stared up at the lines. It was usually a scientist's proudest moment to see one of his creations performing above and beyond his initial expectations for it. Instead, this spectacle was terrible. What had he done to his daughter? "I don't know, son. But we're going to try." He responded finally, pulling Dib along towards the car and handing him a small console. "This is an aerial view of the city, courtesy of a weather satellite that happens to be convenient right now. Notice where the remaining power is active, there are some thin lines visible?" Dib nodded, glancing out the car window at one of the shattered street lights. "How is that possible? The lights are almost all burned out from the excessive power?" He gripped his seat as the car suddenly surged into gear. "Dib, I don't want to scare you, but the lines of light you're seeing on that screen are the remaining functional power lines themselves."  
  
Dib paled, and looked back out the window to his right, staring up at a sparking cable as his father sped the car through the abandoned city streets before returning his attention to the screen before him. "That.. that's incredible." Professor Membrane nodded. "It's far beyond anything I ever even suspected Gaz could be capable of." He shook off the thought. "If you look carefully, you'll notice that the lines converge at a single point." Dib blinked at the display, then shook his head in understanding. "The park." 


	11. Doom for All

A/Note: You asked for it Shay! (why do I have the feeling I've been subjected to a subliminal message??) Sorry it took so long ^^; But it's a longer chapter, at least!  
  
Chapter Eleven: Doom for All  
  
The car sputtered and finally died a few blocks later as the power propelling it gave out completely. The headlamps faded to a sickly yellow, then fluttered out as Dib and his father pushed the doors open. "We don't have much time," Membrane muttered, more to himself than to his son. "I'm not.. quite certain what Gaz is going to do, but I surmise that it will not be much longer before she does it." Dib shivered slightly in the evening air. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing fully on end, and the strange unearthly quiet of the evening being punctuated by the silence from the tortured electric lines overhead was certainly not helping his nerves any. The power surge had ceased, letting a heavily expectant atmosphere settling slowly on their shoulders.  
  
"We've got to hurry." It was an obvious, stupid, redundant statement, but Dib said it anyway. He shook his head slightly, and began to run down the street. It had just occurred to the young paranormalist that he said a lot of redundant, obvious things. It just seemed to help him keep track of what was going on, he decided.  
  
And besides.. it really added dramatic suspense to the narrative of his life.  
  
Together, father and son raced down the abandoned street, towards the city park.  
  
  
  
"You know, Zim, you really aren't taking this the way I'd have expected," Gaz mumbled dryly as the invader glared up at her. The girl had climbed up onto the fence that separated the previously high voltage electrical station from the mundane children's playground like a dangerous animal, and was watching the darkness gather slowly overhead into a malevolent sphere. The alien snarled balefully from his position at the bottom of the fence. Zim leaned against the chainlink, holding tightly to the thick wire mesh with one three-fingered hand.  
  
"I wanted the Earth destroyed, you stupid mutant monkey. That much is true. But NOT with ZIM going along with it!" Zim growled, waving a weak fist in her direction. A few of his metal spidery legs dragged uselessly behind him. His pod had managed to save his life by directing the excessive electrical charge away from its vital systems, but at the cost of the fried devices that now trailed him. He'd never realized how heavy the blasted things were before.  
  
Gaz glanced down at him, unimpressed. "Picky." She turned her attention upwards again, and managed a small, spiteful smile. Thin trails of dark vapor rose from the ground around them, gathering angrily a few feet off the ground. As it clustered together it sank slowly, almost imperceptibly towards the ground, effectively fooling the eye into telling the brain that the object was taking on some sort of mass.  
  
From his vantage point below, Zim clung to the fence. He'd never felt so helpless. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but he wasn't sure what he should do. 'There must be something', his ingenious brain insisted. There had to be something that he could do to stop this deranged.. thing passing itself off as a human. "GIR," he whispered, looking back over his shoulder and startling slightly. There was no sign of his robot companion anywhere. He was on his own. Desperate to do *something*, Zim began to frantically shake the wire mesh of the fence. It wasn't much, but in his weakened state, it was all that he could manage.  
  
Gaz looked down at him again, frowning at the display. "What are you trying to do, Zim?" The irken narrowed his eyes angrily. "I'm going to stop you! I'll knock you off of your perch and stop that.. that.. whatever it is!" Zim pointed at the orb that hovered mesmerizingly just above the ground. It was still ever so slowly lowering as the last vestiges of the blackness gathered into its' core. It didn't glow, and it made no sound at all. The dim half-light of the evening rendered it visible as something like an imperfect hole in space. An inky, ill-defined void that was coming closer and closer to the startlingly ordinary, rather dry-looking grass below them. It was like the reverse effect of turning off a primitive human television, where the light and image would shrink and fade when the set was turned off. Zim fought the notion that if he looked away from the darkness again, that it would fall like a strange rock into the ground and once again glared daggers at the girl sitting serenely over him.  
  
"It's out of my hands, Zim." Gaz replied finally, almost reluctantly. "There's nothing I can do now to stop it. Even if.. I wanted to, I couldn't call it back." The void shrank into itself a little, and the outer edges of it seemed to sharpen. Only a few scant inches separated the void of black from the blades of grass.  
  
  
  
GIR ran back and forth along the sides of a large puddle, chasing the ripples that crossed its' surface. It was the most fun he'd had since he'd filled Master's ship up with a combination of meringue and live fish! Hm, Master's ship.. there was something he was supposed to remember about it.. GIR stopped running and concentrated, trying with all his might to remember what he'd been doing before he'd noticed the puddle. A thin wisp of smoke began to rise from the side of his head.  
  
The little SIR unit's concentration snapped abruptly like a rubber band with too much pressure applied as he heard the sound of running. GIR's head jerked upwards and he screamed at the apparitions that surged towards him.  
  
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"  
  
Dib clasped his hands over his ears at the greeting. "Why doesn't your master install a mute button on you?!" he demanded, trotting to a stop with Professor Membrane close behind him. GIR shrugged cluelessly. "To get to the other side?" The middle-school paranormalist gave one of his patented long-suffering sighs. "Look, we've got to find Gaz." He indicated his father, who was watching in bemused facination behind him. "Dad and I have gotta find her fast, or something. something bad, we think, is going to happen."  
  
GIR peered around the near-disturbingly large head belonging to the small boy speaking to him, and his optic cameras refocused and zoomed outward slightly. "YOU HAVE A FACE!?" he shrieked, pointing at the professor's exposed flesh. It was difficult to tell if the robot was pleased or frightened by this discovery. GIR ran around the tall man, taking in a full 360* view of the strange phenomenon. "What an.. interesting.. toy.." Membrane mused, reaching downwards to pick up the startled alien device.  
  
Dib shook his head. "Dad, I know that this isn't the time, but remember that.. 'alien' I tried to tell you about?" Professor Membrane glanced down from his amazing distraction, "The one under your bed?" Dib groaned. "Dad, that was when I was three! No, I mean Zim! The alien who's infiltrated my class at skool! That's GIR, he's Zim's robot." GIR grinned and waved at the confused man. "How ya doin'!?" Membrane turned the SIR unit over. "So where do the batteries go?"  
  
"Dad.. look we can debate this later," Dib responded, for once letting go of the need to prove he was right about something. "We gotta find Gaz, remember?" GIR squealed happily as he was released and fell with a splash into the puddle he had been running around earlier. "I know where she iiiiiis!" he giggled, spitting out a thin stream of water.  
  
Dib crossed his arms. "The park?" GIR sulked. "Awww, who told? Someone told! I'm telling Master!" the robot threatened, arising from his puddle and running back down the street towards the city park. Dib felt his throat tighten. Zim was at the park with Gaz? It was the worst-case scenario that he'd feared from the start. Grabbing his father by the hand, the boy pursued the robot towards the park, practically dragging the man along behind him.  
  
  
  
"MASTER! MAAAASTEEEER!" GIR screamed, running past the smouldering remains of the Voot and towards the surprised green and red shape of his reluctant master. "I gotta tell you I-"  
  
The ball of blackness touched the ground, and not knowing any better or simply unable to see the strange sphere of not-light, GIR ran right into the darkness. The ball moved through the robot's form and flattened into the ground. GIR stood motionless, as if frozen in place. There was a hushed, low-frequency hum, and ripples like thin walls of darkness surged out in concentric rings from the rather unassuming touchdown point.  
  
Zim and Gaz braced themselves against the fence as it surged through them, taking their breath away and causing Gaz to slip from where she had been resting at the top. She grabbed for the wire mesh and held on desperately as she fell forwards, twisting her arm at an uncomfortable angle.  
  
Zim blinked and gave a short gasp as he shook off the effects of the jolt. "GIR?" he called hesitantly, watching the immobile robot. GIR's optics flickered randomly, then blazed abruptly back to full strength as the unit reactivated itself. "Woo! SURGE!" he cheered. Zim slumped against the fence with a relieved sigh. "GIR, you're okay?" GIR nodded gleefully. "Right as rain and twice as wet!" He held out a hand still dripping from the puddle that he'd fallen in. "Wanna see?" Zim shrank away from his overenthusiastic companion as Gaz struggled to climb the rest of the way down the fence.  
  
Ignoring the small female's plight, Zim strode confidently out into the wake of their now all but forgotten peril. "Well, well. it seems that you have saved your master with your advanced.. Whatever the heck that was. Good job, GIR." Zim praised. GIR giggled. "I've been eating bugs!" Zim squinted at the machine, and grimaced at the sight of a few small wiggling insectoid legs that were protruding from the robot's smile. "Urg.. I feel the urge to reverse my digestive process with a MIGHTY HEAVE!" he muttered unhappily.  
  
"ZIM!"  
  
Oh-ho.. If it wasn't his best worst enemy. Zim grinned. Testing gloat readiness- Gloat ready. Cue the gloat. "Well.. DIB. I'll have you know that your little scheme didn't work! BEHOLD! For I am unscathed!" Zim posed dramatically, and just in case the primitive Earth ape had forgotten just whom he was dealing with, reminded him. "I AM ZIM!"  
  
The Dib looked paler than usual, and badly shaken. Not surprising since he was now in the terrible presence of the fabulous Zim. "Zim, what have you done to Gaz!?" the boy demanded, pushing past the alien to attempt and recover his sister from where she was still dangling painfully. "Gaz, are you okay? What was that STUFF, Zim? Gaz, did he hurt you? You're going to pay for this, ALIEN!" Dib's speech shot back and forth as if he were a multiple personality having an argument with his other self.  
  
Feeling justifiably slighted and falsely accused, Zim straightened indignantly. "For your information, Dib, it wasn't I who caused that display." He pointed past the boy. "It was that.. CREATURE you call a sibling! I was merely the intended victim! But, as you can see I have emerged! Singed, yet triumphant!" Zim's victorious pose deteriorated into panic at the sound of footsteps behind him. He was without his disguise, totally exposed. Determined to go down like the brave soldier that he was, Zim whirled to face the danger approaching.  
  
Professor Membrane ran past the hardware-towing alien to rescue his daughter. "You'll be fine, Gaz," he assured her as he checked her range of motion on the abused limb. "It's just a sprain." Gaz stared at him with no trace of recognition. "Who are you?" The man startled. "Gaz, it's me! Your father!" His tone turned slightly pleading as he searched her eyes for traces of the little girl he remembered who had worn a cute pink ribbon in her hair and asked him 'Why' repeatedly until even the might of science was not sufficient to explain the reasons for whatever the question.  
  
"My father is Professor Membrane. The self-styled savior of mankind through science and marketable image," Gaz replied coldly. "If you're my father, you seem to have shed your identity. I don't recognize you at all."  
  
Dib gaped in disbelief. "Gaz, wha..? How can you..?" Their father shook his head, cutting the boy off before he could finish a sentence. "You're right Gaz, I have." Both children blinked at him in surprise. "I've.. I've been a lousy excuse for a father. I lost myself in my work and almost couldn't find myself again. But I- I want to start over. I want to be your dad instead of your legal guardian. If you'll let me, that is."  
  
A single tear welled in Gaz's left eye as she listened. Somewhere deep within, the resolve forged of hatred and resentment was beginning to crack.  
  
Her father's own eyes were watering as he continued. "I can't ever make it up to you, kids. I know that. But I'd like to try. I'd like to learn to excel at something I should have been trying for a long, long time ago. I- I suppose that I got so caught up in saving all human-kind under the pretense of making the world a better place for you two that I forgot to try and nurture your humanity."  
  
Zim eyed the scene suspiciously as the girl who'd tried to doom him suddenly began to cry. What were these *shudder* humans up to? GIR blew his non-existant nose. "I love this show! Jessica! Don't betray Roger!"  
  
Gaz broke into sobs as the dam of anger finally failed and let loose a flood of bottled up emotions. "Daddy, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Her father hugged her closely and tried to reassure her. "Gaz, honey.. it's okay. It'll be okay." She frantically shook her head. "No, no-no! I- I didn't really mean it.. I didn't! But- But I- I killed everyone!" She began to cry anew. Membrane sat his daughter down beside her awestruck brother. "Gaz, what do you mean?" Gaz hugged her arms tightly around herself. "Y-You saw it, didn't you? You must have seen it." She giggled nervously.  
  
Dib shuddered suddenly. "That.. black stuff? I thought maybe I imagined it. It felt.. wrong. Like it grabbed me for a second and just.. evaluated me." The boys' eyes widened. "Gaz, *you* did that?"  
  
His sister nodded again and continued to rock back and forth. "I made it. I let it loose. It's spreading out now, all over the world. It'll take stock of every living thing on the planet. And when it rejoins into itself on the exact opposite side of the world from where it began. it will coalesce then surge back towards us. And this time as it travels, it will snuff out all life. No living creature, even down to single-celled organisms, will survive."  
  
  
  
..to be continued.. Yes, I AM evil, aren't I? Go look at my pics of Evil Gaz! GO! *big pleading eyes* Pleeeeeease..? 


	12. Hope and Trust

A/Note: Finally, we're getting to the good bit! Or. almost, anyway. Just bear with my eccentric work schedule a little while longer and this falderal will start to make a little sense, okay? --  
  
Chapter Twelve: Hope and Trust  
  
Zim's mouth was uncomfortably dry. He'd been aware of this since beginning his fruitless tirade at Dib's little sister, or whatever she was, and this new revelation about the current state of the planet hadn't helped any at all. It was sort of ironic in a way, an almost frighteningly sane voice in the back of his half-crazed mind noted. He, Zim, was the epitome of outside alien threat. The Supreme Invader, pride of the Irken Armada! (The Tallest themselves had only been able to trust he, ZIM! With this mission, after all.)  
  
With all of his machinations and resources, he'd never been able to successfully doom this spinning ball of filth whimsically referred to as the Earth. However, the forbearer of his most hated rival and persecutionist had apparently managed to create something that would bring about the very thing that Dib had fought against.  
  
And.. it was that delicately brittle-seeming little girl? Dib's "sister"?  
  
Zim couldn't help himself, he began to laugh. It started out as a soft, unwilling chuckle and finally burst forth as an eye-stinging, air-robbing manic howl of pure amusement. He leaned forward, hands resting on his knees for support as he let loose another dizzying cry of hilarity. His shoulders shook with the effort of the outburst, and his breath finally left him so that he finally was only admitting soft painful wheezes. But still he laughed, watching the humans until his own amusement squeezed his eyes tightly shut.  
  
Dib turned towards the sound, and fixed the diminutive alien menace with a disapproving glare. "What, Zim!?" he demanded, simultaneously worried and enraged, "Just WHAT is so funny!?" The alien laughed all the more, confusing the boy. Zim was exposed, without his disguise or method of transportation. His fried pak advertised his vulnerability and alien-ness as effectively as a billboard could ever hope to. Zim was helpless as, if not more than the rest of them, and they'd all been informed that they were going to die. For the entirety of his short career battling the irken, Dib had waited for this unwelcome sound. Zim was laughing, wholly and heartily. Laughing as if he'd finally won the long battle between them.  
  
Dib refused to admit that he'd had nightmares about Zim's laugh. He'd known that one day the battle would be over, and one of them would be left victoriously cackling. He'd feared from the first time he'd actually seen the alien that it would, in the final reckoning, be Zim. Especially once he'd realized he was hopelessly outmatched in regard to age and experience.  
  
But why was Zim laughing? Dib could understand how the alien would count himself the winner if he'd had a way off the planet. If Zim could abandon it and just wait for whatever it was that Gaz had unleashed to do his work for him, THEN he'd have something to laugh about. But the sorry-looking wreckage of the Voot was scattered about a small charred crater a few yards away. Zim's pak dredged forth the useless shorted-out metallic legs like some sort of cybernetic vomit. Zim's own body was dirty, bruised and battered. He was as doomed as the world he'd sought to conquer. Had the events pushed the alien over the proverbial edge?  
  
Dib's hands convulsed into fists and he ran over the shove the giggling alien demandingly. "WHY!? Why are you laughing, Zim!?" he cried, grabbing the irken's thin shoulders and shaking him. Zim's eyes finally cracked open, a pair a narrow toreador red slits of mirth. There was no desperate insanity evident in their depths, instead there was a brushstroke hint of something terribly sane, something nearly infinitely amused. Zim caught his breath, gasping slightly. "Funny? But it is, Dib. It really is."  
  
Zim reached out and grabbed the boy around the shoulders, turning him to face his family and holding his free hand before him as if making a grand presentation. "Behold, Dib! Professor Membrane! The man without whom this world falls into. CHAOS!" Zim guffawed, echoing the Professor's own introduction at nearly every function he attended. The older man's face fell a bit more in shame as his son stared at him sadly, finally understanding the source of his rival's laughter.  
  
"You spent all that time saving the Earth, Dib. Saving it so that your parental unit could destroy it, using your little sister as his weapon of choice." Zim leaned on Dib's shoulder, chuckling weakly again. "I couldn't have done better myself. Congratulations!" Zim called mockingly. "I really do wish that I'd thought of that one myself!" Looking wounded, Professor Membrane collapsed into a sitting position, still holding his daughter protectively.  
  
From a little ways away, Zim's robot slave sat quietly in the grass. Something was wrong, he could feel it down in his circuits. GIR stared around him at the mixed reactions exhibited by his companions. Shock and humility from Dib's father, fear and dread from Dib himself, amusement from the Master and horror from Gaz. The little robot, 'advanced' as he was, took in everything around him, silent for once. The ideas and emotions ticked over in his sadly sub-standard processors, and for once his thoughts were of the events going on around him instead of capering gloriously in the elysian fields of absolute random ignorance. "It will snuff out all life." Gaz's voice repeated in his mind.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" GIR screamed suddenly, leaping up from the place in the grass where he'd been sitting and running over to Professor Membrane and Gaz. Frantically, the little robot pulled at the girl's arm. "Make it stop! Make it go away!" GIR pleaded, desperation running rampant in his voice. "Don't let the bad thing kill everyone!" The robot's large cyan eye cams watered as he leaned against the girl and her surprised father. "You made it. Make it go away.?" GIR whispered. Gaz shook her head silently and buried her face in her humiliated father's arms.  
  
Dib pushed Zim away and looked hopefully at his father. "Dad? Can *you* stop it? There's got to be something we can do. isn't there?" Professor Membrane blinked slowly, pushing aside the shattered remains of his ego and looking past it, at his son and daughter. Gaz raised her face and watched his eyes for his reaction. The two of them stared at him dependently, hardly daring to hope. Even after all of this, they still wanted to believe that he had all the answers. He'd started this problem, they trusted that he might know how to fix it. After all, he was their father, and even without the recognition of the rest of the world, he was a miracle worker to them. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Membrane reached once more for the great repository of knowledge that lurked in his brain.  
  
"What Gaz has created would seem to be a form of energy creature, for lack of a better term. It's barely theoretical, so we're going to have to wing it in our approach. This wave of energy must travel over the entire globe before commencing its' true objective, is that correct?" Gaz nodded at the question slowly, watching as her father began to step back into the role he had forged into a phenomenon of 'Third Law' Science; almost absolutely indistinguishable from magic. It was an eerie display without the cushion of his familiar façade of a spotless lab coat and shielding goggles. It was almost as if, after a long term of hibernation under his own 'persona', the true Professor Membrane was beginning to re-emerge.  
  
"Alright, we're dealing with a wave of energy. That's the simplest way of basing our defense," Membrane continued, setting a bemused Gaz down beside him. He stood and began to pace quickly back and forth across the short grass, addressing his odd audience and doing his best to ignore the still smilingly amused.. thing that stood next to his 'insane' son. "We need a second energy wave, of equal magnitude to the first and of the exact opposite charge. That will cancel out both waves and leave the planet unscathed."  
  
Zim smirked. "Wow, no wonder they call you 'Professor'." He muttered sarcastically. "And where are we going to get the power to generate this positively-charged wave?" Dragging the ruins of his spider-legs, Zim strode with nazi-like efficiency over to the tall man and crossed his arms. "As much as it pains me, I think that I will have to assist your *pathetic* efforts if I intend to be the one to destroy this miserable world and live to proclaim my genius to the Empire." Stunned, Membrane stared down at the alien. Sheepishly he looked back to Dib, whose eyes positively glowed with hope and vindication. "Before we go any further, I humbly apologize, son. And I think I do know where we may be able to get enough power."  
  
For two distinct reasons, Dib smiled broadly at his sister. Slowly, she began to smile back.  
  
******  
  
"Wow, so this is P.E.G.," Dib gaped admiringly, staring down into the gold- hued metal depths of the Perpetual Energy Generator's long support structure. He'd never actually seen the device in person before, having been imprisoned by Zim during its' short unveiling. "Do you really think it can produce the kind of power that we'll need, Dad?"  
  
From a little higher up in the superstructure, finishing the arduous process of removing the now-useless spider-like legs from Zim's pak, Professor Membrane nodded. "I certainly hope so, Dib. I'm not entirely sure about the volume production, though. P.E.G. was designed to be an endless *source* of energy, not one of limitless power. Energy sustained forever is a bit different from producing a massive excess of it. However, it's our best bet." Mentally, he added 'And our only bet, for that matter.'  
  
Throwing off the uncomfortable pause, he continued. "No other large source of energy exists in the city that wasn't interconnected with the main circuits." He didn't add that the lack of any sound from the battery- operated radio would indicate that the blackouts were much, much more widespread. No sense in worrying the boy unnecessarily.  
  
Zim sighed in relief at the weight loss before putting in his two monies on the subject. "You're forgetting Zim's base. When the power loss was detected, the base's breakers should have disconnected it from the local power sources."  
  
From his perch below, Dib glared daggers of doubt up at the smug alien. "If you have your own power generators, Zim, then why steal energy from the city?" Zim strode purposefully away from the ruined remains of his spider- like mechanical legs to sneer back at his enemy oft-turned ally. "Why should I not? Taking it from you makes YOU weaker." His eyes narrowed slightly before he continued. "Besides, that energy is only used for the facsimile house part of the base. All the better to blend in with! INGENIOUS, isn't it!?", he demanded rather than asked. The Dib's face scrunched up strangely as he attempted to comprehend Zim's fantastical reasoning.  
  
Neglecting Dib for the moment, Zim returned his attention to the boy's father. "GIR should be back with it any moment, and using my *incredibly* advanced irken knowledge, it shall be me, ME, who boosts your P.E.G. thing's output to the required levels." A series of thunderous crashes began to sound in the distance. "Hm, that's probably GIR, now." Zim mused as he turned towards the exit and began leading the humans back outside, where the monstrously doggishly transformed THING that was his house/base was running towards them; cars and trees and a few nameless hobos no one would miss being crushed by its' passage.  
  
Zim turned to grin with unabashed pride at the stupefied humans. "I can tell you're impressed." 


	13. Fusion and Fission

A/Note: Thanks a lot to you guys who've reviewed! Especially those of you who keep poking me and telling me to finish! I NEED that kind of encouragement to remind me to keep going, lol.  
  
  
  
Chapter Thirteen: Fusion and Fission  
  
Gaz sat quietly by herself as the others worked. Who knew how much time they had? The bizarre hybrid machine that they were so feverishly constructing was to produce the massive amounts of power that she was expected to somehow pit against the strange thing that she'd released. How long ago was it now? Her watch insisted that it was closing in on an hour, but it felt more like years since those events.  
  
She wasn't even sure how she'd made the first thing. Would she be able to create a similar monster, but one opposite in nature? She shivered slightly and hugged her knees to her chest. She was pretty good at fixing mechanical things, her gameslave, the television, the odd alien spaceship; but she didn't offer to help complete the modifications to P.E.G. And none of the others asked for her assistance, for that matter. They seemed to be too caught up in a very loud, very verbal discussion over just whose idea for how to complete the fusion of terran and irken technology should be used.  
  
Finally Zim seemed to win the argument, apparently by screaming "We're doing it my way because I've had more than a century more experience with this sort of equipment than either of you have!" loudly enough to make the entire complex shake viciously. A few shocked moments afterward, Dib's voice commented "So just because you're older..?" in a much more docile tone.  
  
Gaz sighed unhappily and reached a small pale hand down towards the ground. She hummed tunelessly as she traced a few random symbols in the dust and dirt that had been tracked in from the outside world by its would-be rescuers.  
  
Above the yawning bay of the P.E.G. chamber, the multi-layered dome shook and separated. As the translucent roof retracted, thick claw-like metal arms shot down into the facility, digging into the smooth golden walls. With a great groaning of strained metal, Zim's base began to lower itself into position at the apex of the P.E.G.'s estimated energy output field.  
  
Dib stared up in awe at the carefully balanced mass of alien hardware as it began to send out large conduits into P.E.G's frame and down into the output of the enormous generator. Somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him subconsciously that if he were just a little older, the sight might seem a little bit obscene. "Are you *sure* this is going to work, Zim?" he whispered.  
  
The alien in question shot him a superior sneer and gave a brisk, almost militaristic nod of assent. "Of COURSE it will work. When have any of my ingenious plans failed?" Before Dib could answer, a very loud, very *wrong* feeling shudder passed through the entire complex, shaking it to the core of its frame. Zim grinned in embarrassment. "Don't answer that." he urged, just before a resounding thud echoed up through P.E.G.'s large reactor chamber from the infinite-seeming depths below. "I said not to answer that!" Zim screeched, stomping his small booted foot down on the helpless platform beneath him as if that would stave off the sounds of some part of the plan that had possibly gone horribly wrong.  
  
The door to the elevator slid open, and Professor Membrane stumbled into the reactor. "For the sake of the three laws of motion, WHAT was THAT!? Is everyone alright? Dib? Gaz? Little. er. alien-thing?" Dib raised a hand in mute reassurance towards his panic-stricken father as Zim fidgeted.  
  
".alien. thing? THREE laws of. Pah!" Zim growled, shaking his head clear of the stupidity that these humans spouted for the moment. "We are all reasonably well for being horribly doomed. As for that sound.. uhhhehh..errr. I have no idea what you're talking about!"  
  
Professor Membrane and his son unintentionally shared a moment of identical reaction as they rolled their eyes heavenward and shook their heads to clear them of the random inanity that the alien was spouting at the moment. "Well, whatever it *wasn't*," the professor mused, "We had better find out before we try to start P.E.G. up. Perhaps the diagnostic utilities and sensor array can tell us something. I'll go see what I can find out."  
  
Zim straightened and extended his remote communications transmitter as the tall human exited, his superior blood thrilling at once again being in control of the operation. "GIR! Status report!" A brief pause punctuated the gleeful squeal that the dysfunctional robot used to open his statement, which touched upon such vital information as the average sinus-pressure capacity of penguins, the number of unpopped hamsters stacked end to end that it would take to reach the moon, and of course the drastically pertinent price of a weasel-shaving in china.  
  
The mental pain, it was excruciating. Oh yes.  
  
Zim gave a classically pained groan and retracted the device. "I think he means he's ready." At Dib's quizzical expression, the irken shrugged. "What can I say, after all this time, he's beginning to make sense. And before you ask, yes it does worry me. Exceedingly." Dib chuckled quietly and motioned to his sister to join them. Gaz shook her head. "This is where I should be. I'll be waiting here for you guys to get P.E.G. going. Don't let me down, hm?" She gave them a slight smile, allowing it to touch her eyes for a moment before she turned and faced the long tunnel of the reactor. "I'll wait right here." She repeated, keeping her back to them so that the tears that had begun to run down her face wouldn't be visible.  
  
Dib started to step towards his sister, then halted. The hand he had extended fell to his side, then tightened into a fist. With new resolve in his own eyes, he looked up at the confused alien. "Let's go."  
  
The two of them followed Membrane's path back into the control room, where the Professor began checking readouts and monitoring indicator lights that flashed and sparkled in exciting patterns over the otherwise impassive gray screens. "It looks like we've only lost one system during connection. The power regulation isn't going to be working anytime soon of its' own accord and I rather doubt we have time to fix it." The world-famous scientist bit his lip in consternation as he turned to face his small audience. "I believe everything should work, but with no way to control the power levels we could quite possibly blow ourselves to atoms unintentionally."  
  
Dib pulled a chair over next to an important-looking station and climbed awkwardly up into it. "Well, let's get started. Tell us what to do, Dad." Zim squinted at his long-time enemy. Professor Membrane stared quizzically at the boy, as if he wanted to ask if Dib hadn't heard him correctly. Dib gave the two of them a lop-sided grin and shrugged. "Hey, we're dead if it doesn't work anyway, right?" Membrane and Zim traded 'what the hey' expressions and pulled up chairs of their own. The crash-course in ridiculously massive energy production had begun.  
  
Gaz watched the long tube-like arms of the reactor core as they trembled, then began to rotate. A slow steady whine began to build up as P.E.G. shook off the effects of her long sleep and stretched her groggy circuits. Almost in answer, a lower-pitched hum of activity crackled from above. Gaz sniffed loudly in the cavernous solitude of the reactor. That awful aching feeling in the pit of her stomach wasn't going away. She knew that this effort wasn't going to work. But they would try anyway. They would all try, because that was all that was left for them to do. There was *almost* enough power now.. almost..  
  
In a few seconds, the entire chamber to quaking, bursting with wildly arcing currents of power. Gaz stepped forwards, towards the very edge of the platform. It felt very solid. So reassuring and safe. Gaz closed her eyes and reached her hands outward. She could feel it, the darkness slipping around the world. It was almost to the opposite pole, where the destruction would begin. Her 'child' that she had created with her anger and hopeless hatred would kill every living thing on the planet unless she could stop it. She had to try, even if it felt hopeless. She had to, for the sake of her father, for her brother. and for that stupid idiot alien and his moronic robot.  
  
Gaz set her jaw and reachedfor the energy that was cascading around her like a fountain. 'Please work. Please wo-' The chamber began to shake more violently around her, and her eyes flew wide open in fear.  
  
No.  
  
An immense wave of heat surged upwards towards her vulnerable perch as she watched.  
  
NO.  
  
The com link on her watch blazed to frantic life with her brother's voice, screaming at her to get to safety as Zim's voice screamed something just as urgent at his idiot sidekick, who was sitting right on top of the explosion's path.  
  
NO! NO! NO!  
  
Suddenly something grabbed her and pulled her back. There was a deafening roar and horrible heat, then merciful oblivion. When she came to, a pair of large pinkish-red eyes dominated her vision. "Dib! She wakes!" Zim shouted over his shoulder, presumably to her brother. It occurred to Gaz that Zim's voice should have been a lot louder than her ears were telling her it was. In a moment, Dib's sooty, bruised face joined Zim's over her. "Gaz, can you hear me?" he pleaded, picking up her hand. She couldn't find her voice, let alone the energy to nod her head. She settled for giving her brother's hand a gentle reassuring squeeze. Dib smiled tearily and smoothed back his bedraggled hair.  
  
"The generator exploded, but I guess you knew that already." He smiled at the exasperated expression on Gaz's tired face before continuing. "Dad.. he realized what was going to happen before we did. He ran down and pulled you out just in time. He's kinda banged up and his back got a bit burned. He took most of the punishment that the explosion sent your way. He's awake though, he'll be okay."  
  
The unsaid "Until IT comes back" hung in the air uneasily between them. Gaz squeezed her eyes shut, willing the pain and guilt away. Her dad loved her. He really loved her. It really didn't make any difference to him how she was created, what she had set upon the world.. He would do no less for her than he would for Dib. Their dad was willing to die for either of them at a moment's notice. It was both wonderful and humbling at the same time.  
  
Zim's voice intruded on the silence. "What do we do now? Your generator is destroyed and what's left of my base is in orbit. I am loathe to admit it, but.. I am out of ideas for what action to take now other than prepare ourselves to die like proud soldiers." Gaz didn't open her eyes, she didn't want to see her brother's face. His silence spoke eloquently enough that he had no clue how to proceed, either. It was rather tempting just to give in and wait for their fate.  
  
But could she just lay here, waiting for the warmth of the Earth to be extinguished?  
  
The two boys jolted in surprise as Gaz suddenly sat bolt upright with a gasp. Her eyes were wide and luminous with the shock of a major revelation, and her lips parted in a stunned 'O' of amazement. The empty feeling was gone. It had finally gone! "I know what to do.." she whispered softly, almost to herself. "Dib.. take care of Dad until I get back." She raised her face to his for a moment, and squeezed his hand once more. "I love you guys."  
  
She caught the sight of Zim, studying their awkward moment of bonding with an expression akin to barely-disguised horror. "And Zim.." she began, noting with satisfaction that his eyes widened to the size of flying saucers at her newfound attention. She smirked slightly. "You're an idiot."  
  
Then she seemed to fall, almost in slow motion, straight through the floor of the control room and out of the sight of the astonished observers. "Dib. your sister is unequivocally strange." Zim muttered softly. Dib nodded.  
  
  
  
A/Note: Well, we're almost to the end! And don't worry, GIR's fine, folks! 


	14. Gravity of Love

Chapter Fourteen: The Gravity of Love  
  
A/Note: It's the next-to-last chapter, finally. See? See? I didn't forget about this story! Much. Right.. Anyway..  
  
We're finally to the climax here, and the chapter is titled for the song that inspired the story, Gravity of Love by Enigma. ^^  
  
It was dark. A strange warm all-encompassing darkness that surrounded and held you closely, comfortingly. Gaz could feel it almost immediately, drawing her nearer as she 'fell' downwards. She couldn't feel anything of herself. No sensation of her physical body at all. Gaz flinched back slightly at the realization. Had she done something to herself? Had she actually died after the explosion of the P.E.G.'s core?  
  
In lieu of opening her eyes, she opened her senses instead, scanning over herself. She could 'see' nothing save a ghostly contrail of bluish light, which contrasted sharply to the deep maroon-toned darkness around her. She concentrated, and a faint, translucent version of her own body formed out of the blue fog. Whatever she was, she had control of her odd new form.  
  
Experimentally, she tried touching herself with a ghostly hand. The surface of her image wavered only slightly as she brushed her fingers over her other arm. It tingled softly, pulsing with energy. She didn't *feel* dead, she decided. If anything, she felt. purely alive. It was like she was made of a really good caffeine rush. Gaz giggled inaudibly to herself and waved her arm back and forth, expecting to see faint after-images of her not- quite-opaque limb. Instead, it seemed to blur strangely before resolving back into it's familiar appearance.  
  
Something nagged at her mind insistently. Wasn't there something she was supposed to be doing? The others! She'd forgotten about them! How long had she been here, anyway? All sense of time was suspended, she had no idea if it had been minutes or days, even years after she had left her brother and that idiot alien. She *reached* out for the surface urgently with her mind, searching desperately for some sign of life. There! She could detect a pleasantly-flavored shimmer from above. There was still time, but who knew how much? She had to make it in time. For them..  
  
Gaz turned, now seeking the ring of impending death that she'd let loose to close around the Earth. The massive heat signature of the core overwhelmed any sense of where the.. thing could be. How long until it closed? She had to act quickly and gather power from the Earth's core. Geo-thermal power, she recalled her father calling it. Heat energy. And surely there would be enough of it that she could put things right. She turned in the direction of the brightest "light" and headed towards it as quickly as she could move her strange not-quite-body.  
  
As her surroundings grew brighter and more intense, she could detect something like the sound of a human heartbeat, only stronger. With each pulse it sent out, a small shockwave-like vibration of vital force washed out from the core like waves on a beach. Gaz groped feebly for the tendrils of energy. She could feel them, but not really touch them like the readily tangible electrical current she had been able to make such ready use of. After a few moments of scrambling in the spray, she realized why. The filaments were too thin here for her flimsy body to grasp, she would have to go farther still.  
  
Gaz traced her fingers along the twining tide as she approached the Earth's heart, waiting for some tug of resistance to show her that her meager abilities could make use of the energy flowing in excess all around her as she progressed. She probed farther ahead with her strangely-augmented perception. Something was ahead. It didn't feel readily similar to anything she had noticed so far. While it felt *like* the strengthening currents that surrounded her, it was at the same time very different. Almost like a presence. She couldn't feel the intense heat of the molten rock that glowed a seared white-hot around her, blinding even to her odd new ability of discernment. Sightlessly, she stumbled ahead, sobbing of desperate exhaustion. She couldn't fail, not now! Not after coming so far!  
  
Suddenly, the presence was all around her. Rippling energy became fibrous to her half-aware touch. Gaz's "sight" swam uneasily as she looked up. At last her vision cleared a little, and the girl was astounded to see what appeared to be the softly glowing face of a gentle-looking woman. Only it wasn't a woman, really.. it was.. was..  
  
Gaz stared unabashed at the curious sight before her, remembering yet another of her "insane" brother's pet rants. '..this particular theory holds that the Earth is really a single massive living thing, with it's own awareness. It regulates the atmosphere, the land and water, all according to its' own will,' Dib's voice droned in her mind. In spite of herself, she couldn't bring herself to frown at the fact that this meant that now Dib had been right about a whole two things so far. (What next, Bigfoot in their kitchen making waffles?)  
  
Gaz reached for the apparition, silently begging with every ounce of her being for its aid. The soft greenish-blue glow of Gaia intensified as the figure smiled, reaching for the small girl's seeking hand. Gaz felt herself swathed in incredible power, then everything faded to white.  
Far, far above the lazily rolling Earth, GIR stared unhappily out the window of the base. A faint whine of expectancy forced itself out of his vocal circuits. From up here, he could see a dark line tracing across the globe, heading swiftly and surely towards its apex. The base computer observed with bored indifference that "Within seconds the point of convergence will be reached." GIR looked worriedly up at the ceiling, and the computer sighed. "The bad stuff will happen," it explained.  
  
"We gotta save Master!" GIR cried, pointing urgently. A loud gameshow-like buzzer sounded. "Negative. The base has no means of locomotion in an orbital environment," the computer told him. GIR thought hard. "What about the ship!?" he persisted, amazed and proud of his own brilliance. The computer scoffed audibly. "The Voot Cruiser was blown up. Duh."  
  
GIR wailed in fresh agony and pressed his small metal face to the cold glass. No more Earth. No more Master Zim. No more Scary Monkey Show! Everything he loved would be gone! Well, except for his piggy, it was right there on the floor beside him, staring blankly upwards. Poor Piggy, he obviously didn't understand what was going on. GIR lifted Piggy into his arms and hugged him. Piggy was too young to understand that they could do nothing but watch the Earth's doom.  
  
As he detected the arcing slice of darkness nearing the end of it's journey, GIR waved tearfully to the sleepy-looking world below. "Goodbye. Goodbye Earth! I liked you as more than a friend!" he choked, clutching the blissfully naive Piggy tightly.  
  
GIR's photoreceptors blinked. Wait. What was that light? A few strange rays of sparkling luminance shone out of the closing band of blackness. Was this the beginning of the wave of badness that would kill everything? GIR stared, fascinated. Was the end of the world supposed to be so.. pretty? Engaging a magnified view of the goings-on down on the surface blasted the robot back a few feet more from the surface of the window, but provided him with a much better view. The gloomy fog seemingly simmered slightly. It roiled and bucked almost as if in pain, struggling to close around the narrow beam of light that appeared to be no more than a centimeter in diameter.  
  
"What's happening?" GIR squeaked nervously. After a few tense seconds of analytical silence, the brusque voice of the computer spoke up, sounding equally stunned. "Unknown. Insufficient data at this time."  
  
The electronic eyes of the SIR unit and the Base computer were the only witnesses as the light widened, forcing the darkly malevolent energy back. It fought desperately, with blind anger at being unable to achieve its goal so close to victory. As it struggled, it struck out, biting deeply into the brilliance and forcing all the hateful venom it could into its foe. The light was unaffected. All the animosity that one person could summon and empower was nothing to the living essence of an entire planet. The radiance saw its opening and flooded the dark, overwhelming and absorbing it, even as it tried to flee back the way it had come. There was nowhere for Gaz's creation to go. Finally, it was forced to surrender entirely, fading away with the miraculous light just before the sun began to peer concernedly over the horizon.  
  
GIR retracted his telescopic vision and gave a concerned yelp. "THEY'RE GOOOOOONE!" he screamed, throwing himself to the floor and pounding his small metal hands and feet into the tile. "A-Actually, they're not.." the computer interrupted. "Sensors detect Master Zim, very much alive, along with the entire plant, insect, and animal population." Before GIR could ask another question, the computer answered it for him also. "Yes, and the human population, too. All 6,283,515,578 of them. Oops, make that 579. Mrs. Matthei down the block just had a baby girl."  
  
GIR shrieked joyfully. "I GET TO PLAY WIT' THE BABY!!!!!"  
  
The three of them waited at the P.E.G. generator station for hours. Long enough for dawn to come to their disaster-prone city. Long enough for someone to notice the smoke still rising from the facility and think to call 911, after looking up the number. Long enough for an ambulance to arrive, and paramedics to forcibly sedate Professor Membrane in order to drag him away from the building, Dib in tow.  
  
Still, Zim waited. Dib had charged him with waiting for the girl-sibling to return from wherever she'd gone, however she'd done it. But there was still no sign of her, save a shed strand or two of purple hair. Zim shook his head and turned away from the domed building. It was a shame, but good soldiers were sometimes lost in battle to serve the greater good. He inclined his head for a moment, paying the girl's memory tribute before marching resolutely in the direction that the ambulance had gone. Was it a moment's fancy brought on by the long, exhausting day he'd endured, or was the air a little purer today? The sky a little less hazed by pollution? Zim shook his head. He had to be imagining things. As soon as he had reported his opinion that Gaz was not coming back to the Dib-creature, he would get some quality down-time back at the..  
  
Zim stopped mid-stride, and stared up at the sky. His base was up THERE, wasn't it? Hm. That was going to be a problem. A quick check-in with the computer reassured him. Everything was in fine working order. Almost certainly Dib or his father would be able to come up with something to retrieve it. They owed him, after all! The base was safe enough for the moment. The irken tucked his communicator away in his pak and fished out his spare disguise. Those fools at the human hospital would never suspect that the great and mighty Invader Zim walked through their midst! Zim strode off on his way, humming a merry tune.  
  
His fantastic brain had directed him to enter through the door marked "Emergency". After all, any business of Zim was bound to be of pressing importance. As he entered, he looked about the abandoned waiting room. Odd. From the television, he had learned that humans were incredibly prone to inflicting self-injury. A dark-haired college student sat at the recessed window labeled "sign in, please". 'Strange name, even for a human,' Zim thought. "HEY! HEY! Down here! HEY! Desk slave!" he shouted, trying to get the man's attention.  
  
As he jumped up and down waving, he was nearly run down by a trauma team that burst in through the outer doors, carrying a very light-seeming gurney. "We've got an emergency, here!" the woman heading the group shouted to the startled aide sitting at the desk. The young man grabbed for his paperwork and followed them, perplexing Zim. With no other clue where to go for assistance, he followed their voices down the corridor.  
  
"Where is everyone tonight, Kevin?" "They left." "Say what?" "Like I said, about half an hour ago, they all pretty much just. got up and left. They all claimed they were fine now, whatever that means." "Weird, man." "You're telling me. It's not every day you see a guy's arm spontaneously heal a compound fracture. Okay, who have we got here?" "No name yet. A couple out for a walk found the kid laying in the driveway of a house out in the 'burbs. When they couldn't rouse her for anything, they got scared and called us." "Oo-kay.. So.. what's up with her?" "No clue yet. Good respiration, strong pulse.." There was a faint buzzing sound for a few moments. "..and the 'gram says she's got more than adequate brain activity. The only symptom I can put a solid handle on is fatigue." "Wonder what happened to our Miss Jane Doe?"  
  
Zim peeked into the room, glaring at the humans each in turn for ignoring him before his eyes caught sight of the small form on the bed. "That is no 'Jane the female deer'!" he cried, "That is Gaz!" 


	15. Aftermath

A/Note: My computer died, taking this chapter with it. Okay, that's my excuse. The rest of the tale is that I just now managed to make myself finish re-writing it. So anyway, if anyone still pays any attention... here is our conclusion to Weapon. And if you are still reading.. sorry for the inexcusably long delay. ^^;  
  
Chapter Fifteen: Aftermath  
  
Dib hummed a half-remembered tune to himself as he walked down the sidewalk. He'd grown very familiar with it over the past two weeks. The route from the hospital room housing his father and sister to the convenience store might very easily be etched into his brain in fine detail for the rest of his life. Every crack in the cement, each small spray of bright green grass peeking up from soil deposits in the crevices greeted him silently as he made his way to and from the dingy 24-7 nearly every day.  
  
The uncomfortable routine of living in the hospital was made just a little more bearable with some provisions. The plastic bag that bounced against his leg with each step bulged with soda bottles, a large package of individual cups of pudding, and a few candy bars and straws of pixy-stix. A few of his sister's favorite snacks also occupied the sack. Like any good, responsible sibling, Dib held fast to the belief that there was nothing to bring about the attention of his sister than trying to eat something she herself really liked in front of her. It worked at home every time he took the last slice of pizza or soda, anyway. Who knew? After fourteen solid days of staring at Gaz as she lay motionless in her bed, both he and his father were ready to try almost anything to wake her up.  
  
Dib shook off the depressing thought just in time to abrupt stop, startled by the appearance of a pair of large, bulbous-seeming eyes that stared up at him with blank expectancy. The weird little chihuahua stood there staring at him with a eye-abusing lack of blinking that gave the boy shivers. Dib side-stepped around the dog and continued on his way. "What a creepy... freaky... WEIRD dog.." he grumbled to himself, quickening his pace. Another bizarre little dog was waving at him from the doorway to the medical center.  
  
"HI DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIB!" GIR screeched, straining out the vowel until it could have almost passed for an emergency broadcasting system test. The disguised robot was leaping up and down, waving his little paws in the air frantically as if he were afraid that somehow the object of his attention might miss him. 'Slight chance of that,' Dib thought ruefully to himself, trotting towards the small android before he could let loose another sonic blast of greeting. 'People in Greenland probably could hear that!'  
  
GIR drew in another deep breath, presumably to scream another hello to the human boy, only to be foiled utterly as his master gave a sharp yank on the robot's leash. "Enough GIR! The Dib-beast knows you are here! He knows that you are pleased to see him! Enough of your incessant shrieking!" Zim waved his hands in the air over his head for emphasis as he continued. "This is a HOSPITAL, GIR! You can't go screaming and yelling around here!! It is against the human rules!! When will your brain return from that vacation to the realm that sanity forgot!!??"  
  
Dib snickered to himself, immediately drawing the wrath-prone attention of the green-skinned "kid". "Between the two of you, maybe Gaz is awake now." Dib chuckled, walking past them into the frigid lobby. Zim quickly followed, all but dragging GIR behind him on the end of his much- abused leash. For the moment Zim seemed content to follow silently behind him, silencing any potential noise from GIR with a withering glare and implied threat every few steps. Dib wished his companions would say something. Anything at all would do to distract him from the fact that even after two weeks of living here in this super-sanitized hell, he still had that same feeling as he walked down the halls. The feeling that the air was too cold and made his wrists hurt painfully, and that strange, almost certainly psychosomatic notion that under the scent of industrial-grade disinfectant was a deathly sick odor that somehow reminded him of vomit.  
  
He really, really wished that Zim would say something, even if it was a re-declaration of war or something. He glanced over at the irken, who'd fallen into step alongside him. They stared steadily at each other as they marched down the hallway. "Well..?" Zim prodded as they stepped aboard the elevator, "what will you do?"  
  
Dib stared at him blankly. "Do?" Zim smacked himself in the forehead roughly. "Yes, what will you do if she doesn't wake up, Dib? How long will you and your.." he trailed off, winding his hand as if trying to reel in the word he was looking for, "..father-thing insist on remaining in this squallid festering den of disease?" Dib crossed his arms, inadvertantly smacking GIR in the head with the bag that was swinging freely from his arm. "It's not *squallid*!" Zim cut him off pointedly. "Beside the point! When will you be able to accept the.."  
  
Now it was Dib's turn to interrupt, and he did so with gusto. "Accept? Accept what, Zim? That she might not ever wake up? That she might for all intents and purposes be dead? Well I can't! Maybe you can't understand it, but I just can't say 'Oh well, guess she didn't make it' and stroll off happily. Love doesn't work that way! She and Dad are all I have, Zim. All that I have in the whole universe. I'm not ready for her to not be there anymore."  
  
The elevator doors opened, and Dib stepped out, hanging his head sadly. Zim fidgited for a few seconds before trailing after the human boy and GIR, who'd thrown off his leash in favor of running over to his friend and seizing hold of his skull. "You've always got US, Dib!" he squealed happily. Dib turned partially in an attempt to get a look at his assailant, and Zim could see a wealth of responses flicker by in rapid succession.  
  
They all stood there like that for a few moments, and finally Zim was compelled to reach over and pull GIR off to end the awkwardness. He headed off towards the Membrane room with GIR tossed over his shoulders like a bag of supplies. "I've been all alone in the universe before. It's exhilerating and oppressive in its' freedom. Eventually you *will* have to face it." He paused at the appropriate door, allowing Dib to open it and enter first. As his rival passed, Zim looked away. GIR, who was the only one close enough to his master's face to register the event, noticed that it seemed for a moment that Zim's eyes seemed a little over-moist. Not that the great Zim would ever be crying. And of course, not that GIR would remember the event three seconds later.  
  
Dib examined a note left on his sister's bedside by their father. Apparently the physical therapist had come to take him for another walk to gauge his recovery. "Looks like it's just us, guys." He grinned suddenly and reached into his trove of junk-food treasures. "Got something for you, GIR!" GIR leapt free of his master and giddily romped over to the boy and setting him with huge hyper eyes of greediness. "PIXERSTIX!" GIR shrieked, stuffing a handful of the offered candy straws into his mouth whole.  
  
Zim glared over at Dib from the chair he had claimed across from the sugary melee. He threw the boy and the bot a disparaging glare before turning towards Gaz and demanding that she wake up and put a stop to their nonsense. Dib climbed into his own chair on the other side of Gaz's bed and continued feeding the robot a few of his choice treats. It wouldn't be a total loss if he could get GIR hyper enough to sing 'The Song that Never Ends' all the way home again tonight, he thought with a snicker.  
  
That was when he felt it. Not a piercing glare of icy doom, instead it was a very, very hard punch to his left arm that knocked him out of his hard uncomfortable chair and sent him sprawling to the floor. He pulled himself upright, fixed his glasses from where they had been knocked askew, and was rewarded by the sight of Gaz sitting up in her bed and glaring at him slightly. She huffed in indignation and pointed to his now-throbbing arm. "That," she announced authoritatively, "is for being right. Again," she added after a thoughtful pause. It wasn't her usual expression of sulky anger, though. Gaz's face seemed a little more open and.. almost amused. There was something in her eyes now that was laughing quietly at some private joke only she and perhaps the world itself were having between themselves.  
  
"Uh.. again?" her brother asked blankly. Gaz jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Zim, who was regarding her with wide-eyed superior confusion, and crossed her arms. "It really MUST be an infinite universe, you've been right about two things so far." she mused. Dib watched her warily, unsure whether to shake her and demand to know what she was talking about, or just hug her breathless for waking up again. She surprised him by making the decision for him, reaching over and throwing her arms around him as if she'd never see him again.  
  
Zim eased down out of his seat and wandered over to the hospital window. The Gaz was awake and Dib's family was once again whole, but would never be quite the way it was before. The world outside seemed different, too. The air tasted a little less stagnant and seemed to require just a little less processing by his pak before it was deigned "safe". The sunshine felt a little less unkind, and the colors around him were a little more indiscribably brighter and less grungy. Was it really just his imagination? Or had Gaz done.. something? But what could make the very aura of the planet feel healthier, friendlier, and more 'alive'?  
  
Zim turned to watch GIR cover the two siblings in gooey saliva-coated kisses. He could remember some upstart would-be invader bragging to him that she "fit in perfectly". She had been wrong, though. And for that matter, so had he. It was GIR who fit in perfectly here, for reasons that he couldn't hope to begin to understand yet. The happy reunion playing out before him took another energetic upswing as Professor Membrane's increasingly familiar face came through the door to the room. The irken was transfixed as he observed the man leap for his two children and without regard to their sticky state or his own recently recovered health, grab them into a fierce embrace. GIR was accidentally seized into the hug, but was not cast aside.  
  
In all his considerable years, Zim had never felt like more of an outsider as he watched them all celebrate their reunion. Suddenly, he became aware of someone calling him. He looked up. They were all watching him, expectantly. Dib grinned and held a hand out. "Truce?" he offered, not bothering to conceal the broad smile and remaining tears stinging at the corners of his eyes. Zim looked back and forth between the proffered hand and their faces, feeling a sense of strange wonder and fear. What exactly were these creatures who called themselves humans? How could they even consider to make such an offer to him? He was their enemy, for crying out loud!  
  
Gaz watched calmly as Zim stared at her brother's hand. The irken finally reached to accept it, announcing that he was deigning to "study" the human race. She smirked openly at her brother and his new best friend. Things would be different now, but still very much the same. And for the first time in her life, she was looking forward to the future that she could see stretching out in front of them all.  
  
After all, now she really did have a family. They all did.  
  
-----  
  
A/Note: I hope that wasn't too disappointingly gooey. ^^; Now comes my explanation for this whole thing. (And yes, the Gaia thing WAS partially inspired by 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within'.  
  
The whole point of the story was 1. To try and explain Gaz's *bizarre* powers and abilities in some way that would not quite manage to make sense and 2. To make a few characters come to terms with how they related with each other. Especially Gaz and Professor Membrane. His position as the "faceless man of REAL SCIENCE!" always bothered me. I wanted to make a "REAL DAD!" out of him, heh heh.. Of course, that required him realising how much of him was just 'image' and then shedding that image.  
  
Each of the characters is put through a transformation of sorts. Professor Membrane finally becomes a real father for his kids, or at least is motivated to begin trying in earnest. Gaz's changes are sweeping but subtle. The most important one is that she finally discovers she really CAN be a little girl if she just gets rid of her anger and reaches out to her family. She also 'bonds' a bit with the spirit of the Earth itself, which seems to have inflicted some changes on the Earth as well. Zim becomes less interested in destroying the planet and moreso in studying humanity's positive aspects. Dib sheds a little of his paranormalist extraordinare aspect in favor of becoming a member of his own neglected family. GIR becomes a citizen of the Earth. ^^  
  
Thank you to all of you who read, and especially the ones who've reviewed. And BIG, BIG thanks if you actually hung around long enough to see the ending of yet another long, long, inexcusably long in the making story. I appreciate it! ^^! 


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